The trial of 59 people accused in the collapse of the Genoa bridge, which killed 43 people in August 2018, will begin in July, a judge from this port city in northwestern Italy announced on Thursday April 7.
Read alsoGenoa bridge: the Italian prosecutor's office requests a trial for 59 people
Judge Paola Faggioni also decided that the motorway company Autostrade per l'Italia (ASPI) and the engineering company Spea, which both belonged at the time to the Atlantia group owned by the Benetton family, had to pay the State 29 million euros as part of an amicable agreement concluded between the prosecution and these two companies.
This tragedy cast a harsh light on the poor state of transport infrastructure in Italy and the role of ASPI, accused of not having properly maintained the work of art.
"Good news"
“
This is good news, because the request for an agreement is like an admission of guilt
,” reacted Egle Possetti, spokesperson for an association of relatives of victims interviewed by AFP.
"
But it's also sad, because it's money that could have been spent to maintain the bridge and prevent it from collapsing
," said Egle Possetti, whose sister and husband and their two children were killed when the car was thrown from a height of 45 meters.
The judge also gave the green light to the request of the prosecution, which had requested that 59 people be tried in this case.
Most of the defendants are executives and technicians from the two companies, including the general manager of Atlantia at the time, Giovanni Castellucci, and the former boss of Spea, Antonino Galata, as well as civil servants from the Ministry of Infrastructure.
They are being prosecuted for manslaughter, endangering transport security and various torts of negligence.
Read alsoGenoa bridge disaster: the legal investigation overwhelms the concessionaire
The first hearing was set for July 7, almost four years after the tragedy of August 14, 2018, when the Morandi motorway bridge, located on an essential axis for trade between Italy and France, had collapsed, causing in its fall dozens of vehicles.
The wealthy Benetton family came under heavy pressure after the disaster to relinquish control of ASPI, which runs nearly half of the peninsula's motorway network.
Atlantia finally agreed last year to sell its stake in ASPI to the Italian Caisse de Dépôts et Consignations (CDP) and the investment funds Blackstone and Macquarie.
