L’AQUILA – 56-year-old dead crushed by concrete blocks, two crane operators agree to 10 months and 20 days.
They have sentenced to 10 months and 20 days in prison with suspended sentences MM and EH, the two Edil-Fer crane operators who on 22 August 2023 were unloading construction material in Civita di Bagno, where he died due to falling concrete blocks Viorel Stupariu, 56 year old resident of Pettino for years. The hearing was held this morning in court in L’Aquila, before judge Marco Billi. The victim’s family members are assisted by Giesse Risarcimento Danni.
The tragedy occurred in a few moments in the early afternoon of August 22, 2023, within a plot of land overlooking the State 5bis which connects the town of the Bellavista district with the hamlet of Civita di Bagno. Viorel was assisting with his wife Anica at the unloading procedures of the building material purchased for some work planned on their land. The two workers-crane operators from Edil-Fer, who arrived with a truck equipped with a crane, promptly began the operation of unloading some bags of cement and mortar first by hand, then moving on to using the crane for the main load, a pallet of concrete blocks. A few moments and the tragedy occurred. “The workers attempted to lift the load of 1450 kilos using a crane with a capacity of only 990 kilos – explains Mario Ricci of Giesse – moreover without correctly positioning the feet of the hydraulic stabilizer and without even correctly using the straps to harness the load , so as to make any movement of the same impossible during lifting and unloading operations”. MM and EH, in fact, as also reconstructed by the technicians of the SPSAL of L’Aquila who intervened on site shortly afterwards, had simply inserted two large irons under the pallet containing the concrete blocks, hooking the straps to the four ends which were then hung from the crane. “However, the crane was unable to lift the load easily, so the two decided to manually unload part of the blocks – underlines Mario Ricci of Giesse – but in a few moments both the truck and the heavy load hanging from the crane tilted and concrete blocks, falling apart, ended up overwhelming poor Viorel who was assisting the operation and was also ready to provide help”. Suddenly crushed to the ground by the enormous weight of the material, despite the help of 118, there was nothing that could be done for Viorel. “Unfortunately, little would have been enough to avoid this tragedy – concludes Ricci di Giesse – The load could have easily been divided into two separate pallets weighing for example 725 kilos each, so that they could be easily unloaded using the crane available. It was verified and ascertained that the defendants, both expert crane operators, had equipment and machinery available in the company to be able to act in this sense, unfortunately they instead chose a simpler and faster route, which required less time and effort, but which ended up causing the unfortunate death of poor Viorel”.
