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Italy bridge collapse: 39 dead as minister calls for resignations Italy bridge collapse: furious ministers blame highways firm
(about 7 hours later)
Italy’s transport minister has called on senior managers at the company that operated the collapsed Genoa motorway bridge to resign, as the death toll rose to at least 39. Furious ministers from Italy’s coalition government have rounded on the company that manages the country’s motorways, as authorities struggled to quell growing anger over the bridge collapse in Genoa on Tuesday that killed 39 people.
Rescuers searched overnight for survivors through tons of concrete and steel under the shattered structure of the Morandi Bridge. “We’re not giving up hope, we’ve already saved a dozen people from under the rubble,” a fire official, Emanuele Giffi, told AFP. “We’re going to work round the clock until the last victim is secured.” A vast span of the Morandi bridge caved in during a heavy rainstorm in the northern port city, sending about 35 cars and several trucks plunging 45 metres (150ft) on to railway tracks below. A 12-month state of emergency has been declared in the region.
It is not yet clear what caused the bridge to collapse, which came as maintenance work was being done on the bridge and as the Liguria region experienced torrential rainfall. The tragedy has focused anger on the structural problems that have dogged the decades-old Morandi bridge, and on Autostrade per l’Italia, the company in charge of operating and maintaining swathes of the country’s motorways.
Danilo Toninelli, the transport minister, said on Wednesday that the top level of Autostrade per l’Italia “must step down first of all”. He told RAI television the government intended to cancel its deal to manage the A10 toll motorway connecting Genoa to the French border. The row escalated on Wednesday afternoon to include Benetton, the controlling shareholder in Atlantia, the infrastructure group that owns Autostrade per l’Italia.
“I have given mandate to my ministry to start all proceedings to apply the agreement, that is to revoke the concession from these companies and seek significant sanctions.” In a scathing attack, Danilo Toninelli, the transport minister from the Five Star Movement (M5S) party, called for top managers at Autostrade to resign and launched an attempt to revoke the company’s contract and impose a €150m (£134m) fine.
The deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday: “Those responsible for the tragedy in Genoa have a name and a surname, and they’re called Autostrade per l’Italia. For years it’s been said that private management would be better than that of the state. Luigi Di Maio, the deputy prime minister and leader of M5S, wrote on Facebook that Autostrade was “definitely to blame”, as prosecutors launched a criminal inquiry that will focus on the bridge’s maintenance and design. T prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, also pointed the finger at Autostrade, calling the tragedy “unacceptable in a modern society” and vowing to work so similar events would not happen again.
“And so today, we have one of the biggest dealers in Europe telling us that the bridge was safe and there was no worry of it collapsing. Autostrade had to maintain it but didn’t. It takes the highest road tolls in Europe and pays low taxes, moreover in Luxembourg.” Meanwhile, extraordinary accounts emerged of the moment the bridge came down. Davide Capello, a former professional footballer, told of how the road beneath his car collapsed as he was crossing the bridge, sending him into a terrifying freefall.
The interior minister, Matteo Salvini, said earlier on Wednesday that those responsible would “pay, pay everything, and pay dearly”. “I heard an amazing noise. I saw the road collapsing and I went down with it,” said Capello, 33, from his hospital bed. Few were as lucky as Capello, who walked away with barely a scratch though his car was a mangled wreck. “I was lucky enough to land, I don’t even know how because if you saw my car … I didn’t pass out. I felt as though a miracle happened.”
A criminal inquiry into the collapse has been announced. Afifi Idriss, 39, a Moroccan lorry driver, told Italian media how a green lorry stopped just short of the abyss after another vehicle passed it at the last second, forcing it to brake slightly.
In what witnesses described as an “apocalypse”, an 80-metre section of the Morandi Bridge came down in an industrial area of the port city during a sudden and violent storm at about 11.30am on Tuesday. About 30 vehicles, including cars and trucks, were on the affected section when it fell 100 metres, mostly on to rail tracks, the fire service said. The driver “went back three metres then left the motor running and ran,” Idriss said. “I was behind him, two cars back. I backed up a little, leaving space for other cars. When I saw the thing was so big, that everything had fallen, I took the keys and got out of there.”
Aerial footage showed that the falling structure narrowly missed houses and other buildings as it collapsed over a river. Within hours of the disaster, the anti-establishment government that took office in June said the collapse showed Italy needed to spend more on its dilapidated infrastructure, ignoring EU budget constraints if necessary.
The disaster occurred on a major artery to the Italian Riviera and to France’s southern coast. Traffic would have been heavier than usual as many Italians were travelling on the eve of the Ferragosto public holiday. Matteo Salvini, the far-right interior minister, said EU spending rules could have been responsible. “If external constraints prevent us from spending to have safe roads and schools, then it really calls into question whether it makes sense to follow these rules,” he said.
“The scene is apocalyptic, like a bomb had hit the bridge,” Matteo Pucciarelli, a journalist for La Repubblica who lives in Genoa, told the Guardian. “There are about 200 rescuers working continuously. People are in shock, it’s a very important arterial road that connects Lombardy and Piedmont with Liguria.” Di Maio said that “instead of investing money for maintenance, they [Benetton] divide the profits and that is why the bridge falls.”
Alberto Lercari, a bus driver, earlier told Corriere della Sera: “I saw people running towards me, barefoot and terrified. I heard a roar. People ran away coming towards me. It was horrible.” In 2013, a statement published on the party’s website declared the bridge had the strength to “last another 100 years”. The post was removed from the site on Wednesday. Di Maio said it was published by spokesperson since expelled from the party and not in line with official policies.
Davide Ricci, who had been travelling south, told La Stampa: “The debris landed about 20 metres from my car. First the central pillar crumbled and then everything else came down.” Autostrade said in a statement that it had invested more than €1bn a year between 2012 and 2017 in maintaining and upgrading its network and ensuring its motorways were safe. The company said the improvements were reflected in a reduction in road accident and mortality rates. A fresh round of maintenance work was due to start in October.
Matteo Pierami drove across the bridge with his wife and child, aged two months, almost an hour before it collapsed. The family had been making their way from Lucca in Tuscany to the Ligurian town of Imperia. A couple of friends and their baby had been travelling in another car. The bridge collapse has reignited a longstanding debate about the state of Italian infrastructure. Corriere Della Sera reported that four other bridges had collapsed in the past five years.
“I’ve had some time to calm down and am now trying to understand what happened, but my wife and our friends are very shocked,” Pierami said. “We didn’t hear or see anything, but after passing the bridge stopped at an Autogrill [roadside restaurant], and started to receive calls from family.” The Morandi bridge has been riddled with structural problems since its construction in 1967, which has led to expensive maintenance and repeated criticism from engineering experts. On Tuesday the specialist engineering website Ingegneri.info published a piece that highlighted longstanding concerns over the bridge, calling it “a tragedy waiting to happen”.
Giuseppe Conte, the prime minister, arrived in Genoa on Tuesday night.: “It’s too early to talk about the causes and hypothesis, but one thing is certain, a tragedy of this kind cannot be repeated,” he said. The architect Renzo Piano told La Repubblica that “bridges do not collapse by accident”. He said: “I don’t know what happened yet; I don’t have enough information. What I can say is that I don’t believe that … nature is uncontrollable, that lightning strikes and rain [cannot be dealt with].”
The president, Sergio Mattarella, expressed his condolences in a statement, while stressing that Italians should be guaranteed the right “to modern and efficient infrastructure that accompanies everyday life”. Antonio Brencich, an engineering professor at the University of Genoa, said it would have been impossible to foresee Tuesday’s disaster because the design of the bridge did not allow for accurate checks on the status of the pylons.
“Now is the time for a common commitment towards dealing with the emergency, assisting the injured and supporting those hit by the pain,” he said. “Then a serious investigation into the cause of what happened must follow. No authority can evade an exercise of full responsibility.” Two years ago Brencich suggested in a study that the best approach with bridges such as the Morandi would be to demolish them and start again. “The materials that had been used to build that bridge were destined to deteriorate quickly,” he said on Wednesday.
The Morandi Bridge, which was inaugurated in 1967, is 90 metres high and just over 1km long. Restructuring work on the bridge was carried out in 2016. The highway operator said work to strengthen the road foundations of the bridge was being carried out at the time of the collapse, and that the bridge was constantly monitored. Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
Andrea Montefusco, an engineering expert at Luiss University in Rome who grew up in Genoa said: “It [the bridge] was a sort of jewel in Italian engineering, because at that time it was built with new engineering techniques. I used to enjoy passing over the bridge as a child, it was a novelty.”
About 12 other bridges and overpasses have collapsed in Italy since 2004, killing seven people between them. In early 2015 a €13m viaduct in Palermo collapsed within days of opening. Poor structural maintenance was identified as the cause in most of the cases.
Salvini also claimed that EU spending rules could have been responsible for the collapse of the bridge. “If external constraints prevent us from spending to have safe roads and schools, then it really calls into question whether it makes sense to follow these rules,”he said.
The EU does not place restrictions on how national governments spend their budgets, although eurozone members are expected to keep debt and deficits within limits.
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