A team of firefighters works next to the damaged bus in Mestre (Italy) last Tuesday.ANDREA MEROLA (EFE)
The two Spaniards injured in the accident last Tuesday in Mestre – near Venice – were a pair of brothers from Tablado (Asturias) who were on vacation in Italy. Rosa Rodríguez, 53 years old, elected rural woman of Asturias 2022, and her brother Miguel Ángel (Tablao, 49 years old) are two of the 15 travelers who survived, as the city council of Degaña confirmed to this newspaper. The regional television of Asturias (TPA7) has reported that the brother is out of danger in the Treviso hospital, while the woman is recovering in an induced coma and suffering from severe burns in the intensive care unit of the Padua hospital. Italian authorities are continuing to investigate the causes of the accident to determine why the vehicle left the road and 21 people died.
The bus full of tourists drove back to the campsite where they were staying overnight after visiting Venice for the day. At the time of the incident, around 8:00 p.m., the vehicle was traveling on a two-lane ramp of an overpass when it suddenly broke through the guardrail, plunged into the void and finally burst into flames. According to the Venetian government delegate Michele di Bari, the survivors also included four Ukrainians, two Austrians, a German, a Frenchman and a Croat.
The two injured Spaniards were on vacation in Italy. After being rescued and taken to hospital, they received consular assistance and, according to TPA7, Rosa’s husband and son are traveling to Venice this afternoon to follow first-hand the development of their serious injuries.
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Rosa Rodríguez is known in her region for having received the “Rural Woman of Asturias 2022” award from the Asturian Network for Rural Development (Reader) thanks to her “career in promoting the culture of the people of the southwest of Asturias”, known as Cunqueiros. or tixileiros. The Cunqueiros were skilled craftsmen in the area in the manufacture of wooden plates and bowls. She is also one of the protagonists of the documentary Il Mulin by Alex Galán, which tells the struggle of the ten residents of Tablado to regain their mill.
Since 2021, Rodríguez and his son have been running La Guarida Cunqueira, a craft shop and workshop in the small Asturian village of Tablado with 25 inhabitants, whose aim is to preserve the rural culture characteristic of the region. It also organizes activities to spread the language and music of the region, aspects highlighted at the time by the prize jury for their ability to attract “national and international tourism” to the region.
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The President of Asturias, Adrián Barbón, shared a message of support about X (formerly Twitter), in which he wanted to wish Rosa a speedy recovery, whom he assured, “whom he admires and knows well.”
The Italian media highlighted this Thursday that the guardrail of the road on which the vehicle was traveling before the crash was old and not high enough to be safe. The city administration, for its part, rejects this theory and supports the original hypotheses that suggested that the driver lost control of the bus due to physical complaints.
All my strength goes to Rosa, whom I know well and admire, and her brother. We are with you and with your husband and children. Lots and lots of strength and I hope you get well again soon.
ABarbón💙💛https://t.co/mZwoWORpvT via @lanuevaespana
— 🌹 Adrián Barbón 💙💛 (@AdrianBarbon) October 5, 2023
The prefect of Venice, Michele di Bari, announced late Wednesday that all victims of the bus crash had been identified. Among the deceased, almost all tourists of different nationalities, were nine Ukrainians, four Romanians, three Germans, an Italian (the driver, 40 years old), a Croatian, two Portuguese and a South African. Three of the deceased were minors.
The regional government and the city council of Venice have declared three days of mourning over the tragedy. On the other hand, the Mobility and Transport Sector and the Public Works Department of the City Council of Venice have issued an ordinance regulating traffic on the Via della Libertà flyover in Mestre, setting a new speed limit of 30 kilometers per hour.
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