Rail Disaster Averted; Thief Gets Fashion Advice; Virus App For High School Partiers

News For 24 August 2021

A car with a family of four nearly collided with an oncoming train at a railroad crossing in Riehen yesterday.  Apparently, the driver of the rental vehicle missed the flashing red lights indicating the approach of a train and nearly managed to get onto the crossing with the tracks.  Luckily, the crossing signal gate dropped just in time, damaging the car and alerting the driver to slam the brakes.  Moments later the train passed, with less than half a meter of clearance to the incapacitated vehicle.  No one was injured, and despite the close call, the only damage appears to have been the car's hood which absorbed the impact of the signal gate.

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In the early hours of Saturday morning, thieves entered the courtyard of a private property in Frenkendorf, Basel Land and stole the owner's E-Bike. The confident thieves spent a while examining other items, before noticing that they were being watched by a security camera. Feeling particularly vain, one of the accused even took a moment to have a close look into the camera lens. The video footage has been widely shared on social media to try and aid the safe return of the bike and capture the thieves. This naturally sparked many comments including a comment of, “Unbelievable….If he had known that he was going to be filmed maybe he would not have worn such an ugly t-shirt”. The owner of the bike explained that the bike was securely locked, but had likely been loaded into a waiting vehicle. A neighbour had noted suspicious behaviour the previous evening, with one person in a vehicle and two others walking alongside it at walking pace.

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Starting next week, Basel's high schools will join primary and secondary schools in providing Coronavirus mass testing.  The tests are voluntary, however participants that test negative will be automatically issued a 72 hour Covid Certificate.  The certificate, which is delivered via app, is not coincidentally valid for the weekend after the negative test.  Beside the obvious upside to participating students, the plan has the added advantage of identifying infected students right before the weekend begins, and can inform them to quarantine before returning to school and possibly infecting others.