Disasters & Accidents

Italy investigates cause of fatal cable car accident

Rome, May 24 (EFE).- Italian authorities on Monday were investigating the causes of the collapse of a cable car in the country’s northern Piedmont region.

Fourteen people, including three children, died in the accident near Lake Maggiore on Sunday.

Police have launched an investigation into involuntary manslaughter and criminal negligence that will try to ascertain how the cable became detached as well as how the emergency brakes failed.

“It’s only conjecture, but I think there was a double issue: the cable breakage and the failure of the emergency brake. We do not know why it didn’t activate,” said the provincial head of Alpine rescue Matteo Gasparini.

“The cable broke and the security brake system didn’t work, otherwise the cable car would have been stuck. The investigation will focus on why that happened,” said Olimpia Bossi, the public prosecutor in charge of the investigation.

Bossi added that they will look into all the parties involved in the management and technical checks of the cable car, which is under the administrative authority of the Stresa municipality granted by the Piedmont region.

The maintenance company, as well as those responsible for conducting the most recent technical checks in November 2020, will also be investigated.

“The investigations will continue, but now public institutions have the duty to offer support to those affected by this tragedy,” said Stresa Mayor Marcella Severino after a meeting with Enrico Giovannini, minister of infrastructure.

The Ministry of Infrastructure has appointed an Inspection Commission to “identify the technical and organizational causes” of the accident.

The only survivor of the accident, a 5-year-old child, is hospitalized and in serious condition. EFE

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