Eight years after a catastrophic infrastructure disaster claimed 43 lives in the Italian port city of Genoa, a court has handed down a landmark guilty verdict to the country’s former top motorway executive. On Wednesday, Judge Paolo Lepri read the 12-year prison sentence for Giovanni Castellucci, ex-CEO of Italy’s state-controlled motorway operator Autostrade per l’Italia, to a packed Genoa court.
The tragedy unfolded in August 2018, when a 200-meter section of the aging Morandi Bridge collapsed suddenly during a severe rainstorm, at the peak of Italy’s summer travel holiday season. Falling concrete and steel sent dozens of moving cars and heavy freight trucks plunging more than 40 meters to the ground below, killing 43 people and leaving dozens more families grieving. The disaster sparked widespread public outrage over systemic negligence in infrastructure maintenance and regulatory oversight across Italy.
Castellucci was one of 59 defendants facing charges of manslaughter and negligent damage stemming from the collapse. Prosecutors had initially pushed for a far longer prison sentence for the former executive, who is already currently serving a six-year sentence for his role in a separate 2013 fatal road accident. Another senior Autostrade official, Michele Donferri Mitelli, received an 11-year prison sentence as part of the same verdict.
Reactions from victims’ family members have been largely measured but accepting of the court’s decision. Emmanuel Diaz, who lost his brother Henry in the collapse, told Italian broadcasters he felt “very satisfied” with the outcome. Egle Possetti, who lost her sister and her sister’s entire immediate family in the disaster, described the 12-year term for Castellucci as “acceptable”, adding that the verdict brought a small measure of closure after years of waiting for accountability.
This is an ongoing developing story, with additional details from the trial expected to be released in the coming days. Readers can access real-time updates via the BBC News mobile application, or by following the official @BBCBreaking account on X for the latest alerts.