The safety braking system of the Mottarone cable car
"did not work"
.
This was stated by the prosecutor of Verbania, Olimpia Bossi.
Meanwhile, in Stresa, which proclaims
city mourning
, comes the Minister for Transport Enrico Giovannini who speaks of the "great sadness" of the whole of Italy in the face of the tragedy that saw 14 victims and only one survivor, a 5-year-old child
in reserved prognosis
.
"It looked like a war scene," says one of the rescuers.
The CEI expresses "deep sorrow" and invites everyone to pray "for the victims".
THE INQUIRY
In addition to the breakage of the cable
, the investigation of the Verbania Public Prosecutor's Office will have to establish
why the emergency brake of the crashed car did not work
from the Stresa-Mottarone cable car. "These are all suppositions, but I think there was a double problem - says the provincial head of the Alpine Rescue, Matteo Gasparini -: the cable breaking and the emergency brake not working. We do not know why it did not activate while in the cabin. downstream it worked ". Failure to activate the brake, he explains, "caused the cabin, after the cable break, to pick up speed, starting to descend, ending up catapulted out of the support cables". The emergency call was launched, around 12.15, by a person who was in the area and who witnessed the fall of the cable car cabin, which took place a hundred meters downstream of the station that rises on the top of Mottarone, at 1492 meters of share.The Piedmontese Alpine and Speleological Rescue technician in the Piedmontese 118 Operations Center, in close coordination with the health personnel, sent two helicopters from the Regional Helicopter Rescue Service to the site from the Borgosesia and Alessandria bases, while the 118 helicopter from the Turin base it was sent to Borgosesia and kept on standby. The helicopter-transported teams identified the two survivors and proceeded with cardiopulmonary resuscitation maneuvers before stabilizing the two patients, both minors, and transferring them by helicopter to the Regina Margherita hospital in Turin, where one later died. In the meantime, the ground teams of the Alpine Rescue arrived on site and proceeded with the recovery of the bodies, with theextraction of those still present in the cabin and handed them over to the judicial police authorities for recognition operations. Carabinieri, Alpine Rescue of the financial police, firefighters and Civil Protection also intervened.
"Logica would like that the cable broke and the braking system did not work,
but it could also be the other way around
. The consultants will have to decide."
Thus the prosecutor of Verbania, Olimpia Bossi.
"I have already spoken with the Polytechnic of Turin, even if I have not yet given the task - he specifies - we will need mechanical engineers and we are evaluating whether we also need metallurgical experts".
"Weather permitting,
if there is a need we will make other inspections
, but everything that should have been has been collected", added Olimpia Bossi.
"It will be a complex activity, it will take time", says the magistrate, specifying that the investigators have already begun to "collect documents and statements".
OWNERSHIP OF THE CABLE CAR
It is not yet clear whether the Mottarone cable car is owned
by the Municipality of Stresa or by the Piedmont Region
. "We are investigating it in these hours", explains the prosecutor. On the occasion of the last major redevelopment of the cable car, the Region allocated an important contribution, against which the transfer of ownership of the plant to the Region was expected, but it is not yet clear whether this procedure has been completed. "We need to clarify whether the owner is the Region or the Come of Stresa," says prosecutor Olimpia Bossi. The Verbania prosecutor specifies that more than one person is involved in the affair. "There is the company that manages the plant, Ferrovie del Mottarone, there are the companies that carried out the renovation of the plant, in the two-year period 2014-2016, and there is a company in charge of the annual audit". L'the last one would have been carried out in November 2020, six months ago: "We are acquiring the final reports, which by law must be sent to a territorial branch office of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. Also on the basis of what will emerge - he concludes - we will have a Complete picture".
CITIZEN MOURNING
"The whole community of Stresa, particularly affected by this tragedy, is showing great responsibility and participation".
Thus the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Enrico Giovannini, in Stresa to meet the local authorities after the Mottarone accident.
Stresa, Giovannini adds, "has proclaimed city mourning for today".
THE SURVIVED CHILD
Meanwhile, the
5 year old only child survived
all '
accident Mottarone cable car
"has spent a quiet night - explains John La Valle, director general of the Health City - and now can only hope. We have put all our excellence and we are monitoring the situation minute by minute ". The baby was operated on last night to reduce fractures and is now intubated. "We await the next 48 hours, the situation is critical but bodes well", adds La Valle. "The child is sedated and intubated - explains Giorgio Ivani, director of resuscitation of the hospital - yesterday he underwent an operation and now he remains asleep.
During the day we will do an MRI scan.
to assess the condition of the brain.
Now he must remain calm, we hope.
It is not yet possible to say if he has suffered brain trauma ".
In the hospital, late yesterday evening, the aunt of the child arrived, the sister of the father who died in the accident with his wife and other two-year-old son.
The family, of Israeli origin, lived in the Pavia area. "
I learned what had happened from the Whatsapp messages
. I began to receive so many 'I'm sorry' and I didn't understand why ... ". So, outside the Regina Margherita children's hospital in Turin, Aya Biran, aunt of the only child who survived the cable car accident. The woman reached Turin in the late yesterday evening. Doctor in a prison in the Pavia area, he is not unbalanced on the conditions of his grandson who remain critical. "We do not know what the direction will be, the trauma suffered includes a head trauma, we need to see how the situation will evolve", he limits himself to say. When she arrived in Turin, at the Regina Margherita Children's Hospital, it was late at night. After the messages on Whatsapp, "I called my brother who did not answer me, so did my sister-in-law - says the woman -.Two hours later we received confirmation from the carabinieri and realized that my nephew was alive because his name was not in the list of victims "." I lost my brother, my sister-in-law, another nephew - he says - and with them they also died my sister-in-law's grandparents, who, after receiving the vaccine in Israel, had decided to come to Italy to spend some time with their grandchildren saying 'what can ever happen in Italy' ".
THE REACTIONS
"A terrible tragedy that should never happen. For this reason it is necessary to immediately clarify the causes and responsibilities".
The
senators of the 5 Star Movement in the Public Works Commission
of Palazzo Madama say so.
"The collapse of the Stresa-Mottarone cable car - they continue - leaves dismay. We cling to the pain of the families of the victims and follow the progress of little Eitan. As representatives of the institutions, however, we can only highlight the need to
immediately shed light on this tragedy
. The safety of our citizens and our tourists can never fail and in this sense the commission set up by Minister Giovannini is welcome. Understanding what has happened is a duty of all of us so that these tragedies do not happen again ".
FUNERALS
On the bodies of the 14 victims of Mottarone, the prosecutor of Verbania arranged "external diagnostic findings", considering instead the autopsy "superfluous".
"By today we will arrange the clearance for the funeral".
This was stated by the prosecutor of Verbania, Olimpia Bossi, who coordinates the investigation into the collapse of the cable car cabin.