Thirty-two people, including the former chief executive of Italy’s motorway operator, have been convicted over the 2018 collapse of a bridge in Genoa that killed 43 people. The verdict was delivered in a hushed courtroom in the north-western Italian city on Thursday.
Sentences handed down
Giovanni Castellucci, former boss of Autostrade per l’Italia, received the highest sentence of 12 years in prison. He was convicted of complicity in multiple counts of manslaughter through negligence. His lawyers said they would appeal, arguing that as CEO their client had relied on Italy’s leading engineers. They called the verdict “a defeat for the truth”.
In total, 32 people were convicted and handed sentences ranging from one year and 11 months to 12 years. Others were either found not guilty, or lesser charges had expired under the statute of limitations.
One of Italy's worst tragedies
The Morandi Bridge collapsed on 14 August 2018 during a summer storm. A 50-metre section of the bridge fell away, sending vehicles plunging onto warehouses and a riverbed below. It was one of the worst tragedies in modern Italian history.
The trial became both a search for accountability over one of Italy’s worst infrastructure disasters and a test of the country’s notoriously slow justice system. The collapse of the 51-year-old bridge stunned Italy and exposed deep concerns over the safety of the country’s ageing infrastructure.
Conflicting arguments
Prosecutors argued that years of neglected maintenance, ignored warning signs and repeated delays to safety works contributed to the collapse. They alleged that essential repairs were postponed while the motorway operator continued to generate and distribute profits.
Defence lawyers rejected those claims, arguing that the disaster was caused by a fatal flaw in the bridge’s original design, specifically the failure of stay cable No 9, and that no maintenance programme could have prevented the collapse.
Victims react
There was silence as the judge read out the verdicts in a courtroom packed with about 400 relatives of the victims, lawyers, journalists and members of the public. Some relatives embraced and wept. Others said they needed time to come to terms with what the court had decided.
“We need to better understand the ruling; there are a large number of defendants involved,” Egle Possetti, a spokesperson for the victims, who lost her sister, brother-in-law and her sister’s two children in the tragedy, told Reuters.
Political aftermath
The disaster also triggered a political battle over control of Italy’s motorway network, ending with the Benetton family relinquishing its controlling stake in Autostrade per l’Italia. The remains of the Morandi Bridge were demolished and replaced by the Genoa San Giorgio Bridge, designed by the Genoa-born architect Renzo Piano, who donated the project to his home town. The new bridge, which opened in August 2020, features sail-shaped elements inspired by the city’s maritime heritage.
