The driver of the tram that derailed in Milan on 27 February has been entered into the register of suspects for negligent train disaster. The hypothesis of a crime is contained in the investigative report which was sent this morning by the local police to the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office. The alleged crime also includes manslaughter and negligent injury. In the indictment, the crimes are contested, as stated in the seizure decree executed by the local police, also with the hypothesis of “anomalous competition“, provided for by article 116 of the code of criminal procedure. A registration which suggests, therefore, that other people will be registered in the register of suspects, also for all the necessary technical investigations, such as consultancy on the “black box” and the kinematic one on the reconstruction of speed and dynamics. It is possible, in fact, that, after the acquisition of the documents in the offices of the ATM (Milan transport company), including the company organization chart, the prosecutor Marcello Viola and the prosecutor Elisa Calanducci, also as a guarantee for the consultancy to be carried out, will also have to register the names of some responsible for the safety of the vehicles. Two people died and around fifty were injured in last Friday’s accident.
Who is the driver
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In service for thirty-five years, the driver has spent his working life on the tram and this, at 60, was his first accident. From what has emerged he hit his head on the glass and has a black eye, he struggles to explain those moments but, otherwise, physically he remained almost unharmed. His wife was also in the hospital with him: “Morally – he explained – he is destroyed, because something happened that in all these years of work he would never have expected to happen”. In the decree, the Prosecutor’s Office clarifies, among other things, that it is necessary to “verify the health conditions” of the 60-year-old tram driver that afternoon (he said he had felt ill) and “ascertain” whether he had “reported critical issues or anomalies of some kind to the ATM operations room”.
Investigations continue
Work continues to reconstruct the dynamics of the derailment of tram 9, which then ended up against a building in Viale Vittorio Veneto. Seizures and acquisitions of documents were carried out this morning in Milan, at the ATM headquarters in via Monte Rosa. Among the documents acquired and those seized there would be paper information on the technical specifications of the Tramlink, a type of vehicle recently entered into service in the ATM fleet, and the recordings and messages between the ATM operations center and the driver. The objective is to provide an engineering and procedural framework to understand the possible reasons for the derailment, which occurred, based on the driver’s initial declarations, due to a failure to divert a switch following an illness. The documents acquired and seized today will be viewed shortly.
Possible violations
In the decree the prosecutor hypothesizes violations of article 141 of the Highway Code, i.e. the failure to adequately regulate the speed near a stop, and the failure to realize that the railway switch present just before the intersection was operated in the ‘left’ direction while omitting the action in the ‘straight’ direction. The seizure decree also specifies the need to verify the health conditions of the suspect at the time of the derailment and to ascertain whether or not he reported critical issues or anomalies to the ATM operations room.
See also
Tram derailed in Milan, from illness to braking: issues in the investigation
Person mistaken, mistake about the identity of one of the dead on the tram
Meanwhile, it emerged today that the fifty-six-year-old Senegalese, Karim Tourè, was not the second victim of the tram derailment. This was specified by the prosecutor’s office, explaining that there was an exchange of people and that Tourè was actually hospitalized with a red code in hospital. The person who lost his life in the accident is another foreigner of African origins whose family members are being searched for.
ATM pays the first compensation of 5 thousand euros to those involved
Atm has reportedly decided to support all those involved in the tram 9 accident, including with a first and initial compensation. The company will initially pay an initial sum of 5 thousand euros per person to those involved in the accident. The amount that will be paid to those involved in the derailment of the vehicle will then be adjusted depending on the situations. The public transport company is trying to contact all those involved in the accident and will look after those who were left outside their homes due to the tram hitting a building. The ATM is also working to contact the families of the two victims to provide all possible support.
