Italy is commemorating today the fifth anniversary of the Genoa bridge collapse that killed 43 people in August 2018, with a ceremony at the site of the disaster and messages from political leaders.

“It was a disaster as serious as it was unforeseeable,” the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, said in his message.

“The time that passes does not reduce the responsibility for what happened,” he adds, asking the justice to determine “definitively the circumstances, guilt, malfunctions and omissions” of the persons and businesses involved in this tragedy.

“There are still so many questions in this tragedy that remain unanswered. The anger, the pain, the thirst for justice of the victims’ families are sacred feelings and deserve our respect,” wrote Prime Minister Georgia Meloni in a message.

The disaster remains an “open wound,” said Giovanni Totti, governor of the Liguria region where Genoa is located. The names of the victims were displayed today on a large screen in front of the district headquarters.

The Chronicles

On August 14, 2018, the Morandi viaduct, which was located on an axis of essential importance for exchanges between southern and northern Italy, collapsed, sweeping away dozens of vehicles.

The tragedy had brought to light the poor condition of roads, bridges and railways in Italy, where the infrastructure faces a chronic lack of maintenance and investment.

The Genoa court sent 59 people to trial in April 2022. Around 170 witnesses have testified since the beginning of the trial and more than 80 hearings have taken place, but the first instance verdict is not expected before 2024.

The court also ruled that the motorway company Autostrade per l’Italia (ASPI), which managed that bridge, and the engineering company Spea, both then part of the Benetton family’s Atlantia group, should pay the state 29 million. euros as part of an amicable agreement concluded between the prosecution and these two companies.