Thus, without any prison day for the defendants, ends the trial on the tragedy of the Stresa-Mottarone cable car, which cost 14 people. The fall of the cabin was caused by the breakdown of the driving rope, while the emergency brake – voluntarily deactivated by the managers – did not enter into operation.
The judge of the preliminary hearing ratified three pleaons and willing the non -place to proceed for two other defendants, acquitted of any accusation. The Verbania gup accepted the request of Luigi Nerini, owner of the Mottarone railway, who agreed 3 years and 10 months of punishment. Pattery also for Enrico Perocchio (operating director, 4 years and 11 months) and Gabriele Tadini (head of service, 4 years and 5 months). None of the three will end up in prison.
The defendants, initially arrested and then released between strong controversies, had been placed under house arrest by the review.
Subsequently, the Cassation had canceled the precautionary measures. The prosecutor asked for storage for Martin Leitner, delegated councilor of the Leitner company, and for Peter Rabanser, head of the customer service. The Piedmont Region withdrawn the establishment of a civil party after obtaining compensation of about 100 thousand euros.
What had happened
In May 2021, a Stresa-Mottarone cable car rushed tragically causing the death of 14 people.
The cable car that from Stresa, on the Piedmontese bank of Lake Maggiore, reached Monte Mottarone, had been reopened only a few weeks before, after some renovations carried out in 2016.
Everything had been subjected to a technical review, but unfortunately something went wrong. The rope ceded 300 meters from the destination causing the cabin into the void, falling into a particularly impervious section.
The anger of family members
It is a sentence that inevitably leaves the bitterness in the mouth and feeds the anger of the families of the victims, forced to deal not only with the atrocious loss of loved ones, but also with justice that appears incomplete for them. Nobody will serve a day in prison for a tragedy that could and had to be avoided, and this weighs like a boulder.
This is the value they give to people’s lives – Vincenza Minutella, mother of Silvia Malnati, one of the victims, commented with bitterness. The lawyer Emanuele Zanalda, who represents some family members of Etan – the unique Israeli child who survived the massacre – added: Mr. Nerini has never arrived a letter of apologies to the relatives of the victims. He leaves the bitterness in his mouth. But we are satisfied that there has been a significant condemnation for those against whom we had constituted a civil party, that is, nerini and tadini.
To the pain for broken lives is added the feeling that the dignity of the victims has not been fully recognized. As relatives remember, in fact, even a letter of apologies has not arrived from those who had the responsibility for the safety of the system.
The judicial truth does not always coincide with the sense of justice that the society asks, and this story is yet another proof of this. That’s why the case of Mottarone is not just a closed process: it is an open wound for the whole of Italy, which questions us about the value that we really give to people’s lives and on the need to always put security before profit.
