The sadness after the tragic cable car accident is great.
A brother waited in vain for his sister.
Only one little boy survived the tragedy.
The news ticker.
14 people were killed in a cable car crash on Lake Maggiore in Italy *.
Except for a little boy (5), nobody survived the fall of the cable car.
Several arrests were made after the incident on Pentecost Sunday (May 23).
The railway's emergency brake is said to have been manipulated to ensure continued operation.
Update from May 28, 3:24 p.m .:
Why didn't the emergency brake on the cable car work?
The investigations by the Italian authorities are in full swing.
Luigi Nerini, head of the mountain railway company, is currently in custody.
Now the service company Leitner provides the public prosecutor with all maintenance documents.
The Leitner company resolutely opposes allegations that insufficient maintenance was the cause of the gondola accident.
"The extensive documentation on the maintenance work carried out by Leitner on the Stresa-Mottarone cable car confirms that our work has always been carried out with care and attention to safety," says a company spokesman for
Bild
.
Stresa-Mottarone: Frequent maintenance work on unlucky cable car - last service one day before the accident
Maintenance work on the cable car also occurred very regularly.
The Leitner AG list shows five missions this year alone.
According to the company, the hydraulic center of the vehicle brakes was checked and the pressure accumulator loaded at the end of April.
There were no abnormalities, the spokesman confirmed.
There has been no further request from the operator in this regard since then.
So there weren't any problems with the braking system, at least officially.
But just one day before the devastating accident, another service request was received.
The operating company "Ferrovie del Mottarone" reported wear of the rubber rollers on a support.
“This mission, which is not related to the suspension cable brake, consisted of replacing one of the many cable pulleys on the supports,” explains the Leitner spokesman for
Bild
, “although this request was not urgent, the mission was completed on the same day. "
Cable car accident in Italy: the pull rope torn - the emergency brake on the gondola did not trigger
Less than 24 hours later, the pull rope broke.
As
wa.de
reports, there is a trace here leading to Germany *.
Why it tore is still unclear and probably not the most important part of the investigations.
The crucial question: Why did the gondola slide down into the depths without braking?
In the first interrogations, those responsible are said to have confessed that the brake system was blocked with a metal fork.
A clip was also found at the scene of the accident.
Apparently the system had previously led to complications more often.
Since April 26th, the gondola has stopped again and again without a reason being found, reports the
Süddeutsche Zeitung
, citing Italian police
reports
.
Has the brake been deactivated so that operation runs smoothly?
Suspicion of manipulation of the brakes: "Serious criminal offense" - service company appears as a joint plaintiff
Leitner board member Anton Seeber describes such manipulation as a “serious crime”.
Further police investigations will determine whether it actually took place.
If the suspicion turns out to be true, massive penalties will be imposed on those responsible at the operating company.
Service company Leitner is now also taking steps.
"In order to preserve the reputation of our company, our employees and the entire industry, we have decided to take part in these proceedings as a joint plaintiff," promises Seeber, "any compensation will go to the families of the victims of this tragedy."
Cable car accident in Italy: tragic story of Luca - his sister Silvia never arrived
Update from May 28, 12.20 p.m
.: On the way from Stresa on Lake Maggiore up to Monte Mottarone (1,300 meters)
, the pulling rope
broke shortly before the mountain station for an unexplained cause. Then the gondola raced into the depths, overturned and smashed. 14 people died in the accident on Whit Monday.
Silvia (✝27) was among the victims. The young woman was identified as one of the first victims after the crash. She got on the cable car with her boyfriend Alessandro. Her brother Luca was waiting for them at the departure station. They wanted to celebrate their graduation together. The fact that the two never arrive, he could not imagine how the Italian news portal
ilgiornale.it
reported
.
A call from his mother drew his attention to the crash of the gondola. When she heard of the accident, she called him immediately. "Mom could feel that something had happened," says Luca. Then the sad certainty soon followed for him and his family. Silvia and Alessandro are among the 14 fatalities.
“She was good my sister, yes I know she was very good.
But what is it all about?
She's gone, she's gone
And I wish I had died with her, ”said her brother Luca through tears.
Only one young boy survived the cable car accident.
However, the five-year-old had lost his parents and brother and was seriously injured himself.
His condition remains serious.
But the boy is now "awake and conscious" in the intensive care unit, said the children's hospital in Turin.
Little Eitan had already spoken to his aunt.
Cable car accident in Italy: Surviving boy (5) woke up
First report from May 27, 2021
Turin - The cable car accident in Italy near Lake Maggiore continues to concern the investigators. Three men were arrested. They are said to have manipulated the emergency brake in order to ensure the continued operation of the railway. In addition, it is still completely open why the carrying rope could break.
In the meantime, the only survivor of the tragedy appears to have woken up. The five-year-old boy has been in hospital in Turin since the accident, as reported by the Italian newspaper
La Stampa
. He has now woken up in the intensive care unit and spoken to his aunt. The newspaper refers to information provided by the city of Turin. The boy suffered a chest and abdominal trauma in the fall and broke several extremities. However, he should be able to leave the intensive care unit in the next few days and continue to be treated in another ward.
According to the Verbania public prosecutor's office, the three men arrested after the cable car accident in northern Italy face “very high” penalties if they are found guilty.
There is also a risk of fleeing, according to the arrest warrant for the three, from which the Italian media quoted on Thursday.
A “thoughtless behavior” led to the death of 14 people and serious injuries to a five-year-old, it said.
The head of the cable car company and two other senior employees were arrested on Wednesday night.
+
Rescue workers work on the wreckage of a cable car that crashed near the summit of the Stresa-Mottarone line in the Piedmont region, northern Italy.
© picture alliance / dpa / Italian Police / AP
Cable car accident in Italy: police find data recorder of the railway - "black box" should bring new details
The cable car had an accident on Whitsunday on the way from Stresa on Lake Maggiore up to Monte Mottarone.
According to the current state of investigation, shortly before the arrival at the mountain station at a good 1,300 meters above sea level, the pulling rope broke for a previously unknown cause.
In that case an emergency brake should have applied, which did not happen.
The gondola sped down at high speed, overturned, and finally smashed.
There is now a suspicion that the emergency brake was overridden by a device known as a “forchetta” (fork) because there had previously been irregularities in the course of the track.
According to the media, one motive for the manipulation could have been that the operators wanted to keep the cable car running at all costs after the long compulsory Corona break.
The Carabinieri commander Luca Geminale said on Thursday, according to the Ansa news agency, that the cable car's data recorder, the so-called “black box”, had been secured.
It is a device that records all technical aspects such as speed, movement and swaying of the gondola.
In the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Infrastructure Minister Enrico Giovannini commented on the accident on Thursday.
He emphasized, among other things, that in the event of a loss of pressure or a rupture of the pull cable on Italian cableways, an emergency brake automatically applies.
The director of such a facility is responsible for their safety, he said.
(dpa / rjs) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
List of rubric lists: © Antonio Calanni / dpa
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