The victims of the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake are to blame because they were careless in staying asleep. “The exception of a concurrence of guilt of the victims is founded, objectively constituting an imprudent conduct that of staying asleep despite the well-known occurrence of two tremors in the evening of April 5 and shortly after midnight on April 6. Competition which, taking into account the he reliance that the later deceased subjects could place in the building’s ability to withstand the earthquake to be the same in reinforced concrete and remained standing during the seismic swarm for months in progress, can be estimated at 30 percent. that the responsibility for each Ministry is 15 per cent and for the residual 40 per cent to the heirs of the builder Del Beato “. The request for compensation from the State Attorney’s Office towards the owners of the apartments in the building in via Campo di Fossa in L’Aquila where, due to the collapse attributable to the earthquake – which occurred in April 2009 – 24 people died, was accepted from the sentence of the judge of the civil court of L’Aquila Monica Croci.
Earthquake in L’Aquila, the families of the victims: “Repugnant sentence, our children only gave reassurances”
by Viola Giannoli
Failure to check
After the tragedy, the heirs of the victims having on their side expert reports attesting to irregularities in the construction phase of the property and a “serious negligence of the civil engineering department in carrying out their task of supervising the observance of the rules laid down by the law in force, in all phases in which this surveillance was envisaged “, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport sued (for millions of euros in damages) for the responsibilities of the Prefecture and the Civil Engineers for the lack of checks during construction, the Municipality dell’Aquila for similar responsibilities and the heirs of the builder Del Beato for responsibilities under construction. The ministries have called into question the condominium, attributing to it a strict responsibility, that is, without fault, but deriving only from the fact of being the owner of the building.
The ‘imprudence’ of staying asleep
In particular, the court recognized a co-responsibility of the dead boys equal to 30% because it considered they were imprudent not to go out after the second shock, condemned the Ministries and the Del Beato heirs, while it rejected the applications against the Municipality and towards the condominium. The criminal investigation had been closed almost immediately after the start of the maxi investigation on the collapses (220 those defined) by the prosecutors Alfredo Rossini (former Chief Prosecutor) Fabio Picuti and Roberta D’Avolio as the alleged perpetrators at the time identified as suspects, they had died over the years. In the civil law case, the families of the victims were defended by the lawyer Luciano Angelone di Sulmona, the Ministries by the State Attorney, the Municipality by the lawyer Domenico De Nardis, the Del Beato heirs by the lawyer Francesco Camerini, the condominium by the lawyer Luciano dell’Orso.
A victim’s mother: “Where does this guilt come from?”
“It is a sentence that surprised us: but where did this guilt come from? Even the Supreme Court confirmed the conviction for one of the members of the Major Risks Commission”. This is the comment to Ansa by the lawyer Maria Grazia Piccinini, mother of Ilaria Rambaldi, 25 year old student who died on April 6, 2009 in L’Aquila in the collapse of the house in Via Campo di Fossa. “How can we say today that the boys should have stayed out when everyone remembers certain reassurances? – continues Ilaria’s mother – It is then disconcerting that this judge who has already made sentences of compensation for the earthquake remembers this only now”.