Station manager ‘not only one to blame’ for deadly Italy crash

ANDRIA, Italy (UPDATED) – An Italian train station manager admitted partial responsibility for a head-on collision that killed 23 people but insisted he was not the only one to blame, as investigators on Thursday, July 14. probed possible institutional negligence or corruption.

The crash happened Tuesday on a single-track stretch of railway run by station managers who communicate directly with train drivers, a system Italian authorities described as outdated and “risky”.

“I’m the one who sent the train on its way,” Vito Piccarreta, head of Andria station in the Puglia region in southern Italy, told journalists.

“There was some confusion, the trains were late. But I’m not the only one at fault.”

Hundreds of mourners held a silent, candle-lit procession through the town to the station late Wednesday, after relatives of victims spent the day at a hospital morgue, providing identification details to help doctors put names to the mangled dead.

One of the four-carriage trains was supposed to have waited at Andria to let another through from nearby Corato town.

An extra train had been slotted into the timetable at the last minute because of delays on the line Tuesday, which may have resulted in the confusion for the Andria station chief, according to Italian media reports.

The delays worsened after one of the trains coming north from Corato had to turn back because it had forgotten to let a disabled girl off at the previous stop, the Repubblica daily said.

Piccarreta is under investigation for having lifted the green “Go” signalling sign. But the Corato station master, Alessio Porcelli, is also in the spotlight because Piccarreta reportedly warned him the train was on its way.

Multiple probes

Trade unions had filed complaints saying the recent increase in traffic on the line with no extra staff was a safety risk, the Repubblica paper said.

A slight bend in the track reduced visibility, leaving the trains — which were travelling at over 100 kilometres (62 miles) an hour — with fewer than 50 metres in which to brake to a stop, when they needed 250 metres, the Corriere della Sera said.

But assistant prosecutor Francesco Giannella insisted the station managers would not become scapegoats.

“We will absolutely not stop at the first version of the truth. Human error is only the starting point of this drama,” he said.

A call for tenders to modernize the security system and lay a second track had been scheduled to open later this month after a two-year delay.

About 55 percent of the rail network in Italy is single track. A pot of 150 million euros ($166 million) allocated by the European Regional Development Fund in the 2007-2013 budget to add second tracks was only partially used, La Stampa daily said.

As Italy’s financial police opened an investigation into the project delays, the head of the nation’s anti-bribery authority pointed the finger at endemic corruption in the country which has poisoned the well of public infrastructure procurement.

“The tragedy is probably the result of human error, the judiciary will establish the facts. But it is without doubt also the result of an old problem in our country, the difficulties in putting in place suitable infrastructure,” Raffaele Cantone said.

“And one of the reasons for these difficulties is precisely corruption”.

Italian consumer association Codacons also insisted Piccarreta and Porcelli could not shoulder the blame alone.

“It is frankly unacceptable. If the control and warning systems had been installed, none of this would have happened,” it said. – Rappler.com