An Italian court on Thursday sentenced former Atlantia Chief Executive Officer Giovanni Castellucci to 12 years in prison over the 2018 collapse of the Morandi motorway bridge in the northwestern port city of Genoa, a disaster that claimed 43 lives.
CNN reported that at the time of the tragedy, Atlantia was the majority shareholder of motorway operator Autostrade per l’Italia, which managed the bridge when dozens of vehicles plunged from the structure.
Family members of the victims filled the courtroom as the long-awaited judgment was delivered in a case widely seen as a test of accountability for one of Italy’s worst infrastructure disasters and an example of the country’s lengthy criminal justice process.
Under Italy’s judicial system, Thursday’s ruling is subject to at least two levels of appeal.
Castellucci, who is already serving a six-year prison term over a separate fatal viaduct accident in southern Italy in 2013, was not present in court for the verdict.
A total of 57 defendants, including senior company officials, engineers and transport ministry representatives, faced trial. The charges included multiple manslaughter and criminal negligence.
The collapse of the 51-year-old Morandi Bridge during a summer storm on the eve of a national holiday in August 2018 stunned Italy and sparked years of investigations into the condition and management of the country’s ageing transport infrastructure.
A 50-metre (160-foot) section of the bridge gave way while up to 35 vehicles were crossing it, sending them crashing onto warehouses and a riverbed below.
The tragedy also triggered a bitter dispute between Atlantia, which was controlled by the Benetton family, and the Italian government at the time.
The disagreement eventually resulted in Atlantia selling its controlling stake in Autostrade per l’Italia.
Ahead of the verdict, Autostrade’s current Chief Executive Officer, Arrigo Giana, published an open letter on Wednesday reaffirming the company’s determination to prevent a similar catastrophe.
“I wish to apologize to the victims’ families, to the people of Genoa, and to all Italians for the suffering caused by the tragic Morandi disaster, fully aware that our gesture can never erase their pain,” Autostrade CEO Arrigo Giana wrote.
Prosecutors maintained that the bridge collapsed after years of inadequate maintenance, ignored safety warnings and delayed repair works, alleging that essential interventions were postponed while profits continued to be generated and distributed.
Defence lawyers disputed those claims, arguing that the collapse resulted from an inherent design flaw in the bridge’s stay cable number nine, the cable that ultimately failed and insisted that no maintenance programme could have prevented the disaster.
