Almost four years later, Italy He begins trial this Thursday for the alleged perpetrators of the Morandi Viaduct or Ponte delle Condotte tragedy in Genoa. At 11:36 am on August 14, 2018, dozens of cars and trucks fell into the void. collapse crowded and neglected bridge and 43 people including died four children. a tragic accident symbol of the fall of Italy, country reliving this tragedy in the midst of another political crisis This puts the survival of his government in jeopardy.
Inside judgment The opening, whose first appearance will be held in an important city in Liguria (northwest), 59 defendants those convicted of crimes such as guilty multiple murder, road murder, disaster, concealment of official documentsY deliberate neglect of precautions to ensure security. Mainly among those who will sit on the bench Managers and technicians of Autostrade companyand its subsidiary speaWho was responsible for maintenance?
But some are included in the list. public employeesincluding officials from the Ministry of infrastructures Italian. The second is to blame know the status of the bridge and therefore, not to prevent the accidentas it came to say Walter Cotugno, one of the prosecutors in the case. According to that, morandi bridge, Its construction was completed in 1967 and A1 motorway -one of Italy’s most important-was before the tragedy “time bomb” and the only thing unknown is “when it will explode”. Suspect “They knew there was a risk of collapse.”
shaky foundations
One of the evidence presented at the trial, multiple engineering analysis, several published years before the collapsewarned of the danger of the infrastructure and recommended its demolition. Other studies continued to point to the fragility of its foundations in the months before the accident.
With that, the prosecution assessed that: “protecting profits” of shareholders, they did not want to finance the care that was needed. “There was not the slightest moment between the opening of the bridge in 1967 and its demolition. Actions to strengthen the supports of column 9” they wrote.
The defense refuses
Defense lawyers denied this. Giovanni Paolo Accinniadvocate Giovanni Castellucci (later Autostrade CEO), “no criminal liability”. “The bridge collapsed due to a hidden construction error,” Accinni said.
Castellucci He resigned from his post in 2019 with a pension 13 million €while the company highway -formerly linked to the Benetton family, later left his share to the government- won’t sit on the bench have reached agreement with the prosecutioninvolving the payment of some 30 million € as compensation.
Victims seek justice
In this scenario, a family of victims He has waived his compensation for the time being. so as not to lose the possibility of presenting civil party at trial. “We have high expectations. In this process, we trust let justice be donecauses and responsibilities, death of our relatives”, the head of the committee of the relatives of the victims explained to the Italian media from Genoa, Egle Posetti.
“What happened was just the tip of the iceberg. Morandi Bridge I’ve had all these problems, otherwise all infrastructure in the country”, added Possetti. “One of these judgments more important for the history of Italy the number of defendants and the magnitude of the tragedy“, added Raffaele Carusolawyer for victims.
File will reopen wounds Troubled after years of cutbacks and mismanagement of state assets, Italy is still not healed, but also endlessly political strifeThat Italians have to endure cyclically. So much so that even these days government mario draghi hang a wire After an internal split in one of the parties in his coalition, the populist 5 Star Movement (M5S).
Source: Informacion
