PIERO CRUCIATTI
“A week after what happened on the morning of May 23rd, Piedmont is once again very close to the families of the victims of the tragedy that shook our area,” said a statement on Saturday.
In the accident on Pentecost Sunday, 14 people were killed and a five-year-old boy was seriously injured. According to the current state of investigation, shortly before the arrival at the mountain station at a good 1,300 meters above sea level, the pulling rope broke for a previously unknown cause. In this case, an emergency brake should have applied, which did not happen. The gondola raced back towards the valley on the carrying ropes at high speed, hit a pillar of the cable car and overturned several times.
After the accident, the head of the cable car company and two other senior employees were arrested. There is a suspicion that the emergency brake was deactivated because there were previously irregularities in the operation of the railway. Apparently, further interruptions in operation should be avoided after the long compulsory Corona break.