When a gondola crashed on Monte Mottarone near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, 14 people lost their lives. There is a suspicion that the emergency brake has been deactivated.
Verbania (AP) – After the fatal cable car accident on Monte Mottarone in northern Italy, two of the three arrested men are free again and one is under house arrest.
As the news agency Ansa reported on Sunday night, the investigating judge in Verbania on Lake Maggiore released the managing director of the operating company and the operations manager from custody. The evidence that the two were responsible was not sufficient, Ansa wrote, citing the judiciary.
According to the media report, only the service manager has to remain in domestic detention. The investigating judge did not consider his statements to be credible enough, Ansa quoted the investigating prosecutor Olimpia Bossi as saying.
It is still unclear why the cable of the cable car broke on Sunday a week ago. 14 people were killed in the accident and a five-year-old boy was seriously injured. According to the current state of the investigation, the cable tore shortly before arriving at the mountain station located a good 1,300 meters above sea level. In this case, an emergency brake should have applied, which did not happen. The gondola raced back towards the valley on the carrying ropes at high speed, hit a pillar of the cable car and overturned several times.
There is a suspicion that the emergency brake has been overridden because there were previously irregularities in the operation of the railway. Apparently, further interruptions in operation should be avoided after the long compulsory Corona break. A minute’s silence was planned for lunchtime on Sunday in the Piedmont region. Regional President Alberto Cirio had called for it.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210530-99-795114 / 3
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