Demolition and reconstruction work began this morning on the 'I Maggio' school building in via Salaria Antica Est, in the Pile district of L'Aquila, the scene, on 18 May 2022, of the accident which caused the death of Tommaso D'Agostino , aged 4, and the injury of four other children.
The cause of the tragedy was a Volkswagen Passat parked on a slope inside the structure: the car, without a handbrake, hit a group of children who were playing in an open space.
The new school should be named after little Tommi, as the mayor of L'Aquila, Pierluigi Biondi, announced in August 2022.
Four people are on trial for the incident, accused of vehicular homicide: Radostina Zhorova Balabanova, 39 years old, of Bulgarian origins, who had parked the car without putting on the handbrake and got out of the vehicle to pick up her twin children from school;
the head of the school Monia Lai (48);
BrunoMartini (60), head of the prevention service of the ICMazzini of which the school is part, and Antonello Giampaolini (60), head of the school building sector of the Municipality of L'Aquila and director of works in the contract for the school complex.
The property, built before the 1980s, is owned by the Municipality of L'Aquila: for decades the internal area was used as a car park as there were no spaces outside, but without huge signs to govern the large influx of cars of parents going to take the children back.
In place of the demolished structure, a nursery school will be built capable of accommodating up to 120 children, of which 60 for the two nursery sections and 60 for the nursery.
The amount of the interventions - 3.3 million euros with completion of works in November 2025 - was financed within the resources made available by the Ministry of Education as part of the Pnrr with the 'Futura-The school for the Italy of tomorrow' project .
The new school center will develop on two completely independent levels and will be structured in an optimal manner with respect to teaching needs, in compliance with current regulations on education, safety and energy efficiency.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA