Italy: Genoa bridge disaster - 14 August 2018

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Families of 43 victims await verdict in Genoa bridge disaster

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The 2018 bridge collapse was one of Italy's worst infrastructure disasters - Image © Getty Images

On the morning of 14 August 2018, Claudia Possetti, 47, was in the car with her new husband Andrea, and her two children, aged 12 and 16.

The couple had just married and were driving to the Italian Riviera with the youngsters for a holiday when the Morandi bridge in the northern city of Genoa collapsed beneath them.

Their car was among those that plunged from the viaduct on to the railway tracks below. The four of them were among 43 people killed in one of Italy's worst infrastructure disasters in decades.

Nearly eight years on, Claudia's sister, Egle Possetti, will be among relatives gathering in a Genoa courtroom on Thursday to hear a first-instance verdict in the trial over the collapse. The children's father, who survived them, is also expected to be in court.

"I feel anxious, worried, very emotional," Egle told the BBC. "After so many years, so many hearings, we may be able to see some light. It would be so important for us to know if someone's been held accountable."

(BBC article continues)

[Chris from Nailsea]

An update, from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Italian officials handed jail terms for Genoa bridge disaster that killed 43

The former head of Italy's motorway operator has been given a 12-year prison sentence over the collapse of Genoa's Morandi bridge in August 2018.

Prosecutors had asked for a far longer jail term for Giovanni Castellucci, ex-chief executive of Autostrade per l'Italia (Aspi).

Forty-three people died when the motorway bridge running through the city came down in a rain storm at the height of the holiday season, sending cars and lorries plummeting to the ground.

Castellucci, who is already serving a six-year jail term for a 2013 road disaster, was one of 57 defendants on trial in Genoa. Another top motorway official, Michele Donferri Mitelli, has been given 11 years in jail.

Emmanuel Diaz, whose brother Henry died in the bridge collapse told Italian TV^▸ (Thames Valley, or TeleVision, depending on context) he was "very satisfied" with the verdict, while Egle Possetti, whose sister and her family were all killed, said she thought the 12-year term handed to Castellucci was "acceptable".

Castelucci was not in court to hear the verdicts, read out by Judge Paolo Lepri. The former number two at the motorway operator, Paolo Berti, was handed a five-and-a half-year jail term, seven years less than prosecutors had sought.

In total, prosecutors had asked for the 57 defendants to be given 400 years in jail for failing to maintain the viaduct, which was built by Riccardo Morandi in 1967.

All the defendants had denied doing anything wrong.

While prosecutors had argued that maintenance of the ageing structure had been repeatedly delayed and that warning signs had been ignored, defence lawyers blamed the disaster on a design flaw, and the fact that a specific cable was encased in concrete.

(BBC article continues)