“Even a pensioner in Certosa would have realized, simply by observing it, that the Morandi bridge had problems. And that the corrosion process, evidently, could not have stopped on its own”. Prosecutors Massimo Terrile and Walter Cotugno began to speak during the preliminary hearing in Genoa as part of the investigation into the collapse of the Polcevera viaduct (14 August 2018, 43 dead). And immediately one of the two magistrates, Terrile, used very harsh words.
“No one since 1992 has intervened on piles 9 (the collapsed one, ed) and 10. Even if the problems were known. Anyone should have realized that the condition of the piles was critical and would have had to take action and propose maintenance interventions equal to those carried out on pile 11 “, carried out in 1992.” It was the progressive corrosion of the pylons that caused the massacre, not an unpredictable design flaw “.
Prosecutors also responded to the objection by some lawyers, who had spoken of late entries in the register of suspects. Immediately the prosecutor had investigated 20 people who had participated in the first evidentiary incident, the one that photographed the state of the viaduct at the time of the collapse. Subsequently other subjects had come under investigation. “We didn’t make random registrations. We don’t throw flyers from a plane. And the two companies didn’t cooperate, providing us with incomplete organizational charts.”
The hearing will continue in the afternoon and will resume next week, with three more hearings scheduled. The prosecutors will ask for the indictment of the defendants of Autostrade per l’Italia, Spea and the Ministry of Infrastructure. At the moment there are 59 people plus the two companies.