Could the Venice bus accident that killed 21 people have been avoided if work on the bridge had been completed? Italian media reported on Thursday that the structure was dilapidated and had been in need of renovation for years, including to close a “gap” in the safety railing.
A project to rehabilitate this bridge, built about fifty years ago, was launched in 2016, but work only began in September and had not yet reached the part of the bridge where the tragedy occurred, said Venice’s deputy mayor in charge of transport, Renato Boraso, in several press interviews.
The electric bus, which was carrying around forty foreign tourists from the historic center to their campsite, crashed into the safety railing, rolled for several meters before entering a 1.5 meter wide “gap”, breaking through a second barrier and finally falling ten meters below, near a railway line, according to media reconstructions.
“Railway Scandal”
The exact circumstances of the accident are not yet known, but the preferred hypothesis is that the driver was unwell. “The two meters without a barrier is how the bus crashed,” summarizes the daily Il Corriere della Sera, while La Stampa denounces “the safety rail scandal.”
“Although these barriers do not comply with current legislation, they did at the time of their construction. “The gaps would have been closed next year thanks to the work already agreed,” Renato Boraso defended himself in the press. “I am against our services looking like assassins. »
“Our services have been involved in the renovation of this section of the safety rail since 2016,” he said, explaining that “we cannot award work worth seven million euros without a tender.” “Let us ask ourselves why in Italy a procedure for carrying out work has to be so lengthy,” he concluded. “The work, which began in September, reached a distance of 400 meters,” he said.