A group of children between 3 and 5 years old, who were playing in the kindergarten garden, was hit by a car which broke through the external fence and hit the little ones. One of them, just 4 years old, died, while another 5 (two of them twins) were injured. Three were transferred to Rome: one to Bambino Gesù and two 4-year-old girls (one not serious the other in a reserved prognosis but for a fracture) to Gemelli.
The condition of the child who lost his life immediately seemed dramatic. The doctors did what was necessary to revive him, but the baby died during the transport to the hospital in L’Aquila.
The accident occurred at the Pile Primo Maggio school which includes a kindergarten and a kindergarten and is located in via Salaria Antica Est, in the immediate outskirts of L’Aquila. The car, a gray Volkswagen Passat, was parked on a sloping street when, for reasons yet to be ascertained, it set off.
From the first information it seems that the car belongs to a mother who had gone to pick up her son from kindergarten, leaving the other child, about eight years old, for a few minutes in the car. And, this is the hypothesis, the child would be able to release the brake. The downhill car picked up speed immediately. A tragic hypothesis that will in any case have to be confirmed by the investigators. The little one in the car was not injured but is in shock.
Ambulances, firefighters, police, carabinieri and city brigades are on site. Rescuers had to free some small children stuck between the car’s engine compartment and the gate as quickly as possible. The prosecutor Stefano Gallo is listening to the various witnesses in the presence of Monia Laihead teacher of the Mazzini comprehensive school to which the school belongs.
Fear and dismay also for the other children, the teachers and the parents who went to get their children. “With some children – says the teacher who with others has immediately welcomed all the children, including the injured ones – into the school – we tried to pretend that it was a game, or at least to minimize it, explaining that today parents came to pick them up early. But how difficult it is. “
“Tommaso was a very nice child, a very calm and serene child, sensitive and very sweet. They often hugged my daughter both when they arrived at school and when they went out, in an emotional image”. Thus the mother of a child who knew the little deceased well. And the mother of another child says: “I asked my daughter, super lucid and not apparently in shock, all the dynamics. With the utmost delicacy. She replied that she was saved, because at that moment she was inside the little house in the garden. Rest in peace, little angel, friend of my child. Let’s pray for the other wounded children, I’m crying as if they were my children. You are all our children. ” And he adds: “Yesterday they had celebrated the birthday of one of the little friends. All happy, all carefree. Today, like every morning, I sent my princess to school. A wonderful school, with teachers and collaborators who are crazy for how good they are. With all the children very close, with the parents as it should be. This shouldn’t have happened, it’s not right “.
“I am deeply saddened, I can not even imagine the pain that the parents of the injured children are feeling. As a father and as a representative of the institutions I am appalled. It is terrible news: we hope and pray that the toll will not worsen”, commented the mayor of L’Aquila, Pierluigi Biondi, immediately after visiting the accident site. The mayor then went to the San Salvatore hospital in L’Aquila where the children were hospitalized and proclaimed the city mourning, canceling any event scheduled for tomorrow, May 19.
“We are all upset and close to the pain of the families. We hope that this tragedy does not worsen, we are in contact with the health professionals to constantly monitor the evolution of the situation” said the president of the Abruzzo Region. Marco Marsilio.
“We express our strongest condolences to the whole community of L’Aquila, to the kindergarten, to the families and of course to the mother and father of the deceased child”, he said in the Chamber of the Chamber. Paolo Siani, deputy of the Pd. Other deputies from various parliamentary groups also joined Siani’s condolences. And the Minister of Education, Patrizio Bianchi: “I hug with deep emotion – he said – the pain of families and the school community”.
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