All acquitted “because the act does not constitute a crime”. Thus ended yesterday the trial for the death of Gino Zanardinithe 61-year-old commissioner and deputy commander of the local police Toscolano which was three years ago overwhelmed by a boulder that broke away from the wall of the Covoli gorge, a gorge between rock and river that runs through the Paper Mill Valley, passed the protective fence and hit him in the head. It was June 12, 2018.
Zanardini had gone out that day with a colleague for check the safety of the pedestrian path on which a violent storm had hit in the previous hours. The deputy commander ended up in hospital with a severe head trauma and died within 24 hours, at eve of his 62nd birthday.
The prosecutor Federica Ceschi, owner of the file, obtained the judgment for that drama for the mayor at the time, Delia Maria Castellini – now retired – the commander of the brigade at the time, Alessandro Costaand the head of the Municipality’s technical office, Mauro Peruzzi.
Initially he had also placed the designer and construction manager of the walkway and tester of the related works, but their position was removed while the investigation was still underway. However, the position of public administrators, considered by the public prosecution, is different responsible for the accident. According to the accusation, the then mayor and the head of the technical office, despite knowing that the measures to contain the rockfall were not perfectly capable of avoid collapses, would not have prepared adequate routine maintenance, nor an adequate access and management plan for the walkway. Hence the request for a one-year sentence for both.
Commander Costa, however, Zanardini’s “employer”.he would have underestimated the risks by not implementing prevention measures and procedures suitable to avoid them: for him they had been asked for two years. On the contrary, the defenders had pleaded the reasons for the acquittal, arguing the unpredictability and inevitability of the accident. According to them, everything possible had been done to make the route safe. Without taking into account the fact that the Municipality, since the walkway is a regional path, did not have great decision-making powers. Conclusion: the court acquitted everyone. Motivations in 90 days.
