fined because they did not cross on the stripes

ANCONA They cross the road and are mowed down by a car. They end up in hospital and, upon their return home, they have to deal with a bitter surprise: a fine from the local police. The alleged infringement: not having passed on the pedestrian crossing located 73 meters from the crossing point. The story concerns an elderly couple, husband and wife aged 80 and 79, and the woman who helped them cross from one side of the road to the other. All three ended up in hospital, fortunately not in serious conditions.

The hearing

Against the report drawn up by the officers, the injured – assisted by the lawyer Andrea Michetti – appealed to the justice of the peace. The hearing has been set for June 3. The objective is to cancel the complaints relating to the accident which occurred last February 27, in via Cadore, at number 2 and near the intersection with via Ferrucci. It was at this height, near a curve, that the crossing took place, from left to right, culminating in the accident. It was a Volvo that mowed down the two elderly people and their friend, a 45-year-old. The three, who were fined 26 euros each, had decided to pass at that point because the pavement close to the pedestrian crossing was in ruins, full of depressions and broken tiles. Not exactly a safe route for an elderly couple.

The motivations

“It is indisputable that that pedestrian crossing could not be used in any way by normally able-bodied pedestrians, let alone if two elderly people with unsteady steps could have done so” wrote the lawyer Michetti in the appeal, who also produced a video for judge Loredana Volpone that proposes the route that, according to the local police, the two pensioners and the 45-year-old who accompanied them should have taken. It is a “path that looks like the result of an aerial bombing” reports the content of the appeal, also accompanied by photographs that show the state of the sidewalk in via Ferrucci, on the opposite side of the Pascoli middle school.

For the appellants, “the assessment thus carried out (by the local police, ed.), divorced from the actual conditions of the roads and pavements at the time of the accident, cannot legitimize any administrative sanction against the unfortunate pedestrians”. Hence, the request to cancel the notified reports.

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