Bus Accident In Venice: Drama About German Family Becomes Known Debate Over Ruined Bridge Sparked Merkur.de

Three Germans were among those killed in the serious bus accident in Venice. The search for the causes continues. The news ticker.

Update October 7th, 9:02am: Following the bus crash in Venice, with 21 deaths, a debate arose in Italy about dilapidated infrastructure – especially between Venice and the mainland. It is suspected that the guardrail on the bridge where the bus fell should have been replaced a long time ago.

The bridge where the bus fell from in Venice. The dilapidated guardrail should have been replaced a long time ago.

Italian consumer association Adico has received a flood of complaints in recent days, reports Italian news portal Corriere del Veneto. The Venetians seem worried: they notice low, rusty guardrails and missing sections. “We would like to invite the administration to a general reflection on the entire infrastructure that connects the historic city to Marghera, the motorway and the Tangenziale”, explains the president of Adico, Carlo Garofolini, to the Italian newspaper. “We should use this tragedy as an opportunity to rethink and protect the entire artery.”

Bus falls off bridge in Venice and catches fire – photos show the tragedy in Italy

Bus accident in Venice: drama about German family becomes known

Update October 6, 10:47 am: A 32-year-old medical assistant from Leipzig also died in the bus crash in Venice. She was on board the bus with her husband and young daughter (4) and son (13). While the mother died, her husband and children survived with injuries. The father of the family was taken to hospital with serious injuries and is currently in a coma. The two children suffered broken bones in the accident and have already undergone surgery at a clinic.
As Leipziger Volkszeitung reported, his grandparents are on their way to Italy to look after their grandchildren.

The scene of the accident in Venice: flowers remember the deceased.

According to the report, the couple, their four-year-old daughter and their 13-year-old son were on the bus that fell off a bridge in Venice and caught fire.

Bus accident in Italy: According to the transport councilor, the guardrail at the accident site in Venice was in ruins

Meanwhile, following the bus accident in Italy, with at least 21 fatalities, significant safety deficiencies at the scene of the accident became public. As the transport councilor of the lagoon city, Renato Boraso, explained in several interviews published this Thursday, the guardrail at the point where the vehicle fell from a bridge did not meet the applicable safety standards. Thus, renovation plans had been in place since 2016, but work only began in September.

According to previous findings, the electric bus in which tourists were returning from a tour of the historic center of Venice scraped several meters along the guardrail before hitting the slope and falling. Venice Transport City Councilor Boraso said the renovation of the railings would have been completed next year as part of works that began in September; Repairs had already been completed up to a section 400 meters from the accident site.

Looking at the seven years that passed from the start of planning to the start of work, Boraso said: “We should ask ourselves why in Italy a procedure for carrying out such work has to take so long.” The bridge from which the bus is 10 meters underground, runs along a railway line between Mestre and Marghera, two continental districts of Venice. According to the city’s fire chief, Mauro Luongo, what made the situation worse was that the electric bus’s batteries caught fire.

Update October 6, 6:42 am: The Venice Public Prosecutor’s Office commissioned a technical report on the guardrail. The information is reported by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, citing the Venice public prosecutor, Bruno Cherchi. It is suspected that the bridge’s dilapidated infrastructure may have contributed to the serious bus accident in Venice.

According to La Repubblica, the bridge is part of a structure that has not received adequate maintenance in recent years. In 2018, the city decided to renovate the bridge – but work only started last month.

Bus accident in Venice: three Germans are among the 21 fatal victims

First report from October 6, 5:37 am: Venice – After the serious bus accident in Venice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin now assumes that three Germans were among the 21 fatalities. Another five German citizens were injured and were receiving medical treatment, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday afternoon, according to the dpa news agency.

Two German brothers aged seven and 13 were among those injured, reports tagesschau.de, citing Italian media. Consequently, the parents of the two children would be among the dead. Italian authorities had already reported three Germans dead.

Tragic bus accident near Venice: bus falls from bridge onto railway line

The devastating accident occurred on Tuesday night in the mainland district of Mestre, in the lagoon city of Venice. The bus from a campsite in the Marghera district – about three kilometers from the accident site – with many day-trippers on board fell from a bridge onto a railway line below. The vehicle caught fire immediately.

In the serious bus accident that occurred near Venice, on October 3, 21 people died, including three Germans.

In addition to the three Germans, the fatalities include nine Ukrainians, four Romanians and other vacationers from Portugal, South Africa and Croatia, as explained by a spokesperson for the mayor of Venice, according to the AFP news agency. The driver of the Italian bus also died in the tragedy.

Investigators want to find out how the tragic accident happened

The cause of the accident is still unclear. Investigators are working hard to understand the background to the accident, Venice prosecutor Bruno Cherchi told La Repubblica newspaper. According to an initial reconstruction, the bus fell nearly thirty feet and landed on its roof. Before the fall, he had slid about 50 meters along the rusty guardrail. It is said that he floated into a gap between the guardrails and then fell.

Dilapidated bridge or driver’s health problems suspected to be the cause of the accident

Therefore, no other vehicles were involved in the accident, as reported by ARD in Rome. One of the main assumptions about the accident currently is that the driver may have suffered health problems while driving. But there is another possible cause that is currently being examined: the condition of the bridge’s metal railing, which, according to Italian media reports, was dilapidated at the scene of the accident.

The accident sparked a debate in Italy about the state of the country’s infrastructure. According to an Italian association of traffic accident victims, it was “a tragedy with an announcement”, reports tagesschau.de. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was shocked after the accident and expressed her deepest condolences. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also expressed her condolences to the victims and their families. (dd/cg/kh with dpa)