Former motorway chief gets 12 years over Genoa bridge collapse
A Genoa court convicted Giovanni Castellucci and 31 others in the first trial over the 2018 Morandi Bridge disaster that killed 43 people.
By Lucas Ferreira · Science & Environment Writer
3 min read
A court in Genoa sentenced former Atlantia chief executive Giovanni Castellucci to 12 years in prison over the 2018 collapse of the Morandi Bridge, a disaster that killed 43 people and became a national reckoning over infrastructure safety in Italy. The verdict, delivered Thursday, closed the first trial tied to the failure of the motorway bridge in the port city.
Castellucci, who led the parent company of Italy’s main highway operator, was found guilty of vehicular homicide and negligence in connection with the collapse, according to AFP, AP and Reuters. He was not in court for the decision because he is already serving a six-year sentence for a separate fatal 2013 incident on a viaduct in southern Italy.
The Morandi Bridge was operated by Autostrade per l’Italia, Atlantia’s motorway unit, which faced heavy scrutiny after the structure gave way on Aug. 14, 2018. The collapse is regarded as one of Italy’s worst infrastructure disasters.
Judges also convicted Michele Donferri Mitelli, Autostrade’s former maintenance chief, sentencing him to 11 years. Antonino Galata, the former chief executive of the SPEA engineering company, received a sentence of five years and six months.
In total, 32 people were convicted, with prison terms ranging from one year and 11 months to 12 years, according to the news agencies. Other defendants were acquitted or saw lesser charges expire under Italy’s statute of limitations.
The trial lasted four years and involved 57 defendants, including corporate executives, engineers and transport ministry officials. Charges in the case included manslaughter, endangering transport safety and falsifying official documents.
Relatives of people killed in the collapse filled the courtroom for the verdict. The case has come to stand for broader public anger over Italy’s ageing infrastructure and the length of major criminal proceedings.
The 1,182-metre bridge, designed by architect Riccardo Morandi and opened in 1967, had been compared in Italy to New York’s Brooklyn Bridge. By the early 2000s, experts were warning that the structure was deteriorating, according to AFP, AP and Reuters.
Prosecutor Walter Cotugno described the bridge as “a ticking time bomb” at the verdict. Prosecutors said years of poor maintenance, ignored warnings and delayed safety works helped lead to the collapse, and alleged that essential repairs were put off while profits were still made and distributed.
The defence argued that the bridge failed because of a hidden construction defect, specifically corrosion in its cables, rather than because of maintenance failures. Judges nevertheless issued convictions against Castellucci and other former company officials.
A 50-metre-high section of the then-51-year-old bridge fell while as many as 35 vehicles were on it, sending vehicles and debris onto warehouses and a riverbed below. The collapse prompted years of investigations into how the bridge had been inspected and maintained.
Autostrade CEO Arrigo Giana issued an apology statement Wednesday. “I wish to apologise 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,” Giana wrote.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.