Genoa bridge collapse trial opens four years after disaster

By Emilio Parodi
GENOA (Reuters) -A trial of 59 individuals, together with former Atlantia CEO Giovanni Castellucci, over the lethal collapse of a motorway bridge in Genoa opened on Thursday in entrance of kinfolk of the victims within the Italian port metropolis.
More likely to final greater than a 12 months, the trial is happening within the largest corridor within the Genoa courtroom, whereas a marquee with video screens has been arrange exterior to accommodate a whole bunch extra members of the general public and journalists who wish to attend.
The street bridge, operated by Atlantia’s motorway unit Autostrade per l’Italia (Aspi), collapsed on the peak of the summer time vacation season on Aug. 14, 2018, killing 43 individuals and laying naked the state of Italy’s crumbling infrastructure.
Prosecutors have compiled a listing of 178 witnesses, together with Aspi’s present CEO Roberto Tomasi and two former infrastructure ministers whom they wish to name.
Authorized sources mentioned that lots of the attorneys for the defendants, who’ve all the time denied all prices, dispute the findings of an professional report into the causes of the collapse that took a 12 months to compile. They might ask the courtroom to annul the report and to fee a brand new one.
“The trial is predicted to be lengthy and complicated,” mentioned Egle Possetti, spokesperson for the victims’ kinfolk committee, who misplaced her sister, brother-in-law and two nephews within the collapse.
“We hope that there might be no loopholes to interrupt the thread of fact and justice that has already emerged within the investigation,” she added.
Choose Paola Faggioni, who in April ordered the trial, has additionally accepted a monetary settlement proposed by Autostrade and its sister firm SPEA to shut the case in opposition to them.
The fees in opposition to Castellucci embody endangering security on the roads and wilful failure to take precautions to forestall disasters. The felony code supplies for a most sentence of 15 years if convicted.
“I hope {that a} fact emerges that might be as goal as potential. Above all, I hope that no abstract justice is carried out,” mentioned Guido Alleva, considered one of Castellucci’s attorneys.
The collapse brought on a dispute between Atlantia, managed by the Benetton household, and the federal government that ended final 12 months with the sale of Atlantia’s controlling stake in Autostrade.
In a doc seen by Reuters on the findings of the investigation into the catastrophe, prosecutors mentioned final 12 months that the collapse was triggered by the rupture of the load-bearing cables contained in the keep of the bridge’s ninth pillar, which have been eaten away by a extremely corrosive environment over the 51 years of the bridge’s life.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi, enhancing by Keith Weir, Jane Merriman and Crispian Balmer)