Ponte Morandi, the relatives of the victims of the collapse: forgotten massacre

«With difficulty we are trying to start over. Having justice could help us, at least it could restore some faith in a state that abandoned us before and after the collapse”. The words of Egle Possettipresident of the Committee for relatives victims of the Morandi bridge, on the fifth anniversary of the collapse of the Morandi bridge in which 43 people lost their lives. It was August 14, 2018.

TO Newspaper.net tells of a pain that shows no sign of diminishing. “It weighs on the heart to know that the tragedy could have been avoided. The confirmation that emerges from the trial: the situation has been known for years and nobody has done anything. It’s shocking to realize how many knew, had doubts, and didn’t lift a finger. It makes our pain unacceptable. Knowing that our loved ones were the martyrs of the bridge but millions of people risked becoming one is unacceptable. The disproportionate profits earned by the company is unacceptable. Knowing that we will never get an answer is unacceptable. The fact that the ministry never checked is unacceptable. A capable and impartial engineer would have been enough to avoid the tragedy».

The committee is a civil party in the trial which sees 58 defendants between former managers and technicians of Autostrade and Spea, officials of the ministry and of the public works superintendency. The trial began a year ago and will not reach a sentence before 2024. «We are working hard, for five years we have not given up a beat. Very important things emerged at the trial but we don’t talk about it at a national level. If we manage with this strength to get to the end, we will have done everything that is humanly possible. We expect truth and responsibility to be clearly recognized. The prosecutor’s office and the Guardia di Finanza have done a great job, wiretapping is essential. If the process reaches a coherent conclusion, perhaps it could be a deterrent for the future and Italy could regain some of the dignity it has lost”.

Egle Possetti says that no one has ever apologized. «Never an admission of guilt for the before. And the state has abandoned us even after the collapse. We have prepared a bill that we had already submitted to the Conte government and we are asking for it to be approved. Our loved ones must be recognized as victims of neglect. The bill provides for protection for the weak, a small non-repayable contribution that supports the legal battle for the victims so that they are not forced to accept compensation and give up being a civil party in the process. We are not in the courtroom for the money, which in the end is the only thing we will be entitled to, we are there to talk, to influence the search for justice”.

Giovanna Donato, ex-wife of Andrea Cerulli, a 47-year-old dock worker, one of the 43 victims of the collapse of the Morandi Bridge, recounts the past 5 years in an open letter. “Five years is a very long time. In five years the process is still ongoing, which started just a year ago, the two responsible companies have had time to negotiate and get out of the process, and justice has not yet been done, in this time many governments have changed, many words , many promises but no one has taken responsibility for what happened ».

It’s still: “In five years it has been possible not to remove the revocation from the guilty dealership but to liquidate it handsomely, there is still no memorial or rebirth of a neighborhood that was first abandoned and then ravaged by tragedy; public information has forgotten the shame of this national tragedy making it invisible to the eyes of all Italians”.

He concludes thus: «Five years is really a very long time especially for a mother who has to raise her child alone. But despite the fact that five long years have passed, the memory of that August 14th, the rush for news, Andrea’s phone turned off, the prayers, that phone call, the choked tears, that plane journey towards the dramatic truth, Cesare’s cry. .. that memory cancels the five long years that have passed because it lives in me, in all of us, every day».