The accused, a Catanese resident, negotiated a sentence yesterday in Siena Court, which he will serve under house arrest: his driving license was also revoked
TERNI – At the outcome of the preliminary hearing held today, Thursday 6 June 2024, in the Court of Siena, before Dr. Sonia Caravelli, Guo agreed to a sentence of three years and six months’ imprisonment for vehicular homicide aggravated by having caused the death and injury of several people.
Sentence to be served under house arrest, Ahmed Ezzedini, 44 years old, of Tunisian origins but resident in Caltagirone, in the Catania area, the truck driver accused and now also sentenced for having caused – due to distraction, excessive speed and probably also tiredness, due to failure to comply of the prescribed driving and rest times – the terrible collision that occurred on 17 June 2022 along the A1 motorway, at km 414, between Fabbro and Chiusi in the municipal area of Cetona, in the Siena area, and cost the lives of the innocent Serena Ursillo, only 37 years old, and her friend Enrica Macci, 49, in addition to the serious injury of three other people.
The accused, who was able to benefit from the sentence discounts provided by the alternative procedure chosen, was also given the additional sanction of revocation of his driving licence.
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The terrible accident was reconstructed in detail by the prof. eng. Mario Vangi, the expert to whom the Siena Public Prosecutor’s Office is in charge of the related criminal proceedings, Dr. Niccolò Ludovici, entrusted the task of drawing up a technical kinematic consultancy to ascertain the dynamics, the causes and all the responsibilities: the engineer also participated in the expert operations, as a consultant for one of the offended parties. Nicola Bartolini made available by Studio3A-Valore SpA, a company specialized at a national level in compensation for damages and in the protection of citizens’ rights to which Serena Ursillo’s family members have relied for assistance, through the Area Manager for Lazio and Umbria Matteo Cesarini, and with the collaboration of the lawyer Lorenzo Marcovecchio, of the Isernia court.
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The accused, driving an Iveco General Trailer articulated lorry, as the investigating magistrate wrote in his request for indictment formulated at the end of the preliminary investigations, “belatedly became aware of the blocked traffic”, due to the dismantling of a construction site, ” and, despite the sudden braking implemented at the last moment, he was going to overwhelm all the vehicles in front of him in the lane”. The heavy vehicle first hit a Volkswagen T-Roc “which, as a result of the impact, was pushed towards the overtaking lane and, overturning, collided with two other stationary vehicles”, a Kia Niro and an Opel Karl: the occupants of the three cars were all miraculously saved, but the driver and the passenger of the T-Roc suffered serious multiple traumas and several fractures with a prognosis of more than forty days.
Unfortunately, after this first impact, the articulated lorry “continued its forward motion, hitting other vehicles in front of it in the lane” continues the doctor. Ludovici in his act, i.e. the Fiat Panda driven by Enrica Macci and in which Serena Ursillo was transported and a Fiat Punto: the two friends – the first native of Tivoli (Rome) but resident in Montefranco, in the province of Terni, sports psychologist and former volleyball player, the second originally from Sant’Angelo Romano (Rome), where her parents still live, but who moved several years ago to Montecampano di Amelia, also in the province of Terni, drums teacher at the Musical Academy of Terni and, after having also played for a long time, volleyball coach of the youth sector of the Amerina club – they were going to Chianciano to follow a qualification course for volleyball coaches. They would never have gotten there.
In fact, “as a consequence of these last impacts – continues the Deputy Prosecutor – the Fiat Panda hit the Punto, overturned upside down, rising, and ended up in the bed of the articulated lorry, while the Punto overturned on its side and ended up stuck under the floor of another articulated lorry” that preceded her. A series of terrible impacts left no escape for the two innocent women in their small car. They died practically instantly, while the driver of the Punto survived, but also suffered trauma for a prognosis of more than forty days.
The prosecutor, specifically, accused the truck driver of “general negligence and violation of various rules on the regulation of road traffic”: “exceeding the maximum speed limit, since he was traveling along a stretch of motorway at a speed of 84 km/h, having already made the relative tolerance of 6 km/h in favor of the driver, thus exceeding the maximum permitted limit which on the motorway, for this category of vehicle, is set at 80 km/h”, “loss of control of the vehicle as he was unable to maintain control precisely the control so much so that, in the presence of a slowdown in traffic and subsequent blockage, regularly reported by the relevant variable message panels and by the traffic service of the motorway company, he was unable to avoid violently colliding with other vehicles that regularly preceded him on the same lane of travel lined up in line with the traffic flow existing there”.
Not only that, from the investigations and analysis of the tachograph of the heavy vehicle it also emerged that the haulier had “exceeded the daily driving period, since he did not observe that prescribed by the EC regulation, exceeding the maximum permitted limit by 32 minutes”. ” and “failure to comply with the daily rest period” defined by the same community regulation.
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“The cause of the event can be attributed exclusively to Ezzedini’s driving conduct. who, traveling at a speed exceeding the imposed limit, did not notice the traffic blockage in front of him except at too close a distance to be able to implement an effective evasive manoeuvre. The conditions of the place and time were optimal, without any obstacle that could have prevented the view of the traffic block in front of you, which did not constitute an unpredictable event, as it was also pre-reported by the motorway staff and the message signs variable. With normal attention while driving, the accused could have stopped his movement like the other vehicles in front of him and the event could have been avoided” concluded engineer Vangi in his report.
We then arrived at today’s preliminary hearing in which Ezzedini, through his defense lawyer, faced with his overwhelming responsibilities, requested and obtained a plea deal. Serena Ursillo’s family members, through Studio3A, have already been fully compensated by the truck’s insurance company, but they also expected a response from criminal justice, despite knowing that no punishment would ever be commensurate with the unbridgeable loss they suffered: a response that arrived, with a sentence of a non-negligible amount considered the “practice” for the crime of vehicular homicide, where the defendants generally get away with very “soft” sentences and conditional suspension.
