Village in Switzerland shoots to YouTube stardom after viral video

A small village in Canton Graubunden has achieved international fame on the internet thanks to a video by British YouTuber Tom Scott, in which he and the locals explain a state of the art radar system to protect drivers from rockfalls.

Tom Scott showcases rockfall early warning system

The video explains how the village of Brienz / Brinzauls (in the council of Albula / Alvra) detects rockfalls from the nearby mountains. The system relies on radar to detect rocks falling from the cliffs nearby, which then triggers a traffic light to stop cars on the nearby road, in order to prevent accidents.

The alarm system was put in place due to the number of large boulders falling from the mountains onto or close to the road near the town, and has predicted over 5.000 rockfalls since it was installed in 2017. The video highlighted the project as a significant feat of engineering, particularly in its ability to determine what was a rockfall and what wasn’t.

The viral video of Switzerland has over 2,4 million views on YouTube

The video, which was posted this week, is already a hit in Switzerland, and has gained over 2,4 million views worldwide. Tom Scott is a YouTube channel with around 4,6 million subscribers, which covers informative and quirky subjects around public transport, culture, education, phonetics and “Amazing Places.”

This is not the first time the channel has visited Switzerland. In the past he has covered water and nuclear bunkers in Zurich, shooting ranges for national service and the reaction ferries that cross the Rhine River in Basel.

Video: Tom Scott / YouTube