There were a few meters to go to the top station of the Mottarone cableway, the operator was already preparing to open the cabin gate to let the 15 passengers arrived at high altitude. But at that point the break: the pulling cable has broken and the cabin tumbled back, out of sight. These are the moments of the cable car accident, in which 14 people lost their lives, recovered from system cameras, whose videos are now being studied by the technical consultants of the Verbania Public Prosecutor’s Office which is investigating with the alleged crime of culpable disaster, multiple culpable homicide e negligent injuries per the injured child in the hospital who will be awakened today.
“The cabin was basically up to point of disembarkation, we see that gasps and go back, ”explained the prosecutor Olimpia Bossi who viewed a small part of the video from the surveillance cameras of the Mottarone cable car. “The view – he specified – is however limited to the finish area”. The images available are taken from multiple angles and the audio of those seconds in which the cabin begins its run into the void. You can hear the noise of the cable breaking, but not the voices of the people on board, while the attendant, surprised by what is happening, takes a leap backwards, according to the stories of those who have been able to view the videos. While Bossi stressed that there is still no certainty regarding the equipment or not of one of the systems black box.
“The day before of the incident we were told it was a implant block, the cable car stopped and there was a intervention to put it back into operation. Whether or not this is connected with the accident we still do not know, just as we do not know if people were present inside the gondola lift “, the prosecutor said, confirming what was told by some witnesses on Monday. The print. Among the hypotheses under consideration, explained Bossi, there is also a possible human error: according to what has been circulated in the past few hours, in fact, there is also the possibility that a ‘fork’ has been forgotten in the emergency brake of the cabin. A tool usually used when there is no one on board the system and the cabins have to return to the stations. “The hypothesis of the ‘fork’ is part of the investigations to be made. You can’t see it from the video ”, said Bossi, who with the pm Laura Carrera investigates the Mottarone cable car accident. “The ‘fork’ – he added – is a mechanism which is part of the locking system and unlocking of the cabin and whether it has been inserted or not must be ascertained “.
Now, to try to reconstruct what happened will be the prosecutor, flanked by the professor Bruno Dalla Chiara, professor of railway, metropolitan and cable transport systems at the Polytechnic of Turin, among the experts appointed by the consultant of the prosecutor. The experts will have to examine the entire section of the cable car which, in the meantime, remains under sequestration. From what emerges, there could also be some entries in the register of suspects, until now considered premature by the prosecutor who continues to proceed against unknowns. It remains to be seen, for example, whether the ownership of the cable car is owned by the Municipality of Stresa or by the Region, given that on the occasion of the last major redevelopment, Piedmont allocated an important contribution which also included the change of ownership by the Municipality, but it is not yet clear whether this procedure has been completed.
It will take a few days, however, to see and analyze the video from the surveillance cameras. The movies in continuous cycle, 24 hours a day, go backwards for seven days and are more than two. “To view them – explains the provincial commander of the carabinieri, colonel Alberto Cicognani – it will take the necessary time. We are doing everything with care ”. It has not yet been ascertained, however, whether or not one exists black box, as the cableway that connects Stresa to Mottarone is not of the latest generation.
It then remains to be determined whether the manager’s responsibilities exist Mottarone railways, the company that carried out the modernization in 2016, the company that annually certifies the functionality of the cableway structures and transmits the reports toUstif of Ministry of Infrastructure, the one that deals with ordinary and extraordinary maintenance and, finally, the operators who worked at the time of the accident.
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