The vice that kept the brakes open, the so-called “fork” had not been forgotten but had a specific function, that of circumventing a brake fault that had lasted for a month and a half. A criminal choice, also made at the cost of the life of 14 people, since that piece of red iron, which is used to keep the emergency brake clamps open, is in all probability the main cause of the crash of the cable car that connects Stresa at Mottarone.
The interrogations of the employees of the Ferrovie del Mottarone company ended around four in the morning with three people stopped: Luigi Nerini, owner of the company that manages the cable car, defended by the lawyer Pasquale Pantano, the director of the business Enrico Perocchio and the head of service Gabriele Tadini. “A consequential development, very serious and disturbing, to the investigations we have carried out. In the belief that a cable break could never have occurred, the risk was run which unfortunately led to the fatal outcome “. Explained the prosecutor Olimpica Bossi, leaving the barracks
Against them there are “serious indications of guilt” that led the chief prosecutor of Verbania Olimpia Bossi and the substitute Laura Carrera to order the arrest: “It was a conscious choice dictated by economic reasons. The plant should have remained stopped “, said Olimpia Bossi, who coordinated the investigations of the carabinieri, led by the provincial commander of Verbania Alberto Cicognani, who told about the material to get to move these complaints.
Stresa massacre, the brake was off: a video proves the error. And there is the first suspect
by our correspondent Federica Cravero, by Leonardo Bizzaro
The crime hypothesis has also changed: to manslaughter has been added Article 437 of the Penal Code which punishes with a sentence of up to 10 years malicious removal of precautions against accidents at work, aggravated if a disaster ensues from that fact. Now they will be restricted – in prison or under house arrest – and in the next few hours the validation of the arrest and the application of a precautionary measure will be requested.
Cableway fall on Mottarone, the manager’s outburst: “I suffer for those dead, I already feel crucified”
by our correspondent Paolo Berizzi
According to what has been reconstructed about a month ago, since the cable car was reopened after the lockdown, the control unit detected anomalies on the braking system of one of the two cabins. The report had been taken into consideration, so much so that maintenance interventions were also requested. However, they had not been decisive and more incisive work would have been needed that would probably have kept the plant down right now that the summer had just begun and Covid was letting go. On the other hand, however, it was difficult to continue with that cabin that from time to time stopped and had to go and retrieve it, pulling it with difficulty to the station. Here then is that a solution was found not to solve the problem but to get around it and for some days the fork that excluded the emergency brakes had been fixed.
One of the points still to be clarified is whether the retractor has been placed on one of the two cab brakes or on both. From the images taken after the disaster, it seems that there is only one fork placed on the wreck, but this morning and the schedule an in-depth inspection to check if by chance the second one jumped during the collision with the ground. However this does not explain the cable break, which was an unpredictable factor.
Mottarone massacre, the engineer in charge of safety: “The cable car was safe, I checked it. The cut cable test was also positive”
in Diego Longhin
Investigations for the crash of the Mottarone cable car were suddenly accelerated during the night when Luigi Nerini, the owner of the Ferrovie del Mottarone company that manages the plant, entered the barracks, whose public property is rebounded between the Piedmont Region and the Municipality of Stresa.
In the afternoon the summons as witnesses of the employees of the company that manages the ski lift began. After a series of cross-questioning between the various workers, the arrival of a lawyer around seven thirty in the evening revealed that the position of one of the workers had become complicated, leading to the registration of a first name in the register of suspects. Late at night some of the witnesses left the barracks, but the carabinieri continued to interrogate indefinitely until the situation was clarified. During the day, documents had also been acquired in the Region and the recording of the call to 118 of those who first raised the alarm had also been seized.
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