On Pentecost Sunday, a gondola crashes in northern Italy and kills 14 people. A week later, people remember the victims. So far, it is puzzling: Why did the pulling rope break?
Stresa (AP) – Silence in Stresa and flags at half mast: One week after the fatal cable car accident on Monte Mottarone west of Lake Maggiore in the northern Italian region of Piedmont, people thought of the 14 victims in a minute of silence on Sunday afternoon.
“A week has passed since a day we will never forget,” wrote the President of the Piedmont Region, Alberto Cirio, on social media. It is a day of mourning for the region. Cirio expressed his condolences to the families who had been destroyed in this “madness”.
The gondola, which was occupied by 15 people, fell down shortly before the mountain station because the cable of the gondola broke for an unexplained cause and a deactivated emergency braking system on the suspension cable did not work. The cabin raced downhill, crashed into a support, jumped out of its anchorage, and finally crashed against the steep, wooded slope.
Only one little boy survived the accident. His parents, brother, and great-grandparents died. A few days after the crash, three men were arrested in a nightly operation. It was the head of the cable car company and two senior employees. The investigating public prosecutor and the examining magistrate in the Verbania municipality interrogated the men.
The investigators suspected that a clamp was used to prevent the emergency brake from engaging on the gondola because the cable car had been disrupted time and again. The clamp may actually only be used for maintenance purposes, but never in normal operation, said the company Leitern, which is responsible for maintenance on the Stresa-Monte Mottarone cable car according to a contract.
By disabling the brakes, it is suspected that on Whitsunday, with the best weather for excursions, tourists could be transported to the summit without problems. Monte Mottarone is known for its view of Lake Maggiore and the mountain panorama.
As it became known on Sunday night, the boss and another employee were released. According to the Ansa news agency, 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 in the first place.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210530-99-795114 / 5
