He ran over and killed 48-year-old Loris Forghieri by car, riding his bike in Viale Bandini in Reggiolo. Immediately after the accident, which occurred on the afternoon of June 24, 2023, the driver did not stop. Forghieri was hospitalized in serious condition at the Maggiore hospital in Parma, where he died after twenty-four hours of agony. Two days after the crash, the motorist, 27-year-old Salvatore Iacono, originally from Cinquefrondi (Reggio Calabria) and resident in Fabbrico, showed up at the police station accompanied by his lawyer. In the meantime, the investigations of the traffic police and the carabinieri, coordinated by the public prosecutor Maria Rita Pantani, had already led to the identification of Iacono as the person who had caused the crash: the rear-view mirror of a Ford Focus belonging to the suspect was found near the bike. , an eyewitness was interviewed and the cameras were viewed. He, who had been arrested, was charged with vehicular homicide, escape and hit-and-run, and also with driving without a licence, which he had never obtained.
Before judge Luca Ramponi, the young man, defended by the lawyer Fabrizio Pancaldi, agreed to a 4 and a half year plea deal with the public prosecutor in the Isabella Chiesi hearing. The road to an agreement on the sentence appeared to be uphill, as it was rejected by the Prosecutor’s Office, but then the parties managed to reach an agreement on which the judge gave consent. Appearing last July before the judge for preliminary investigations Andrea Rat, Iacono admitted the charges, saying he wanted to pay for what he had done.
He said he hit the 48-year-old with the car, causing him to fall to the ground: “Then I got scared and walked away.” Learning that Forghieri had passed away, Iacono reported having had a crisis of conscience: “I was struck by remorse and so I decided to take on my responsibilities”. Since then he has been subjected to house arrest; in the meantime he compensated the victim’s relatives for the damage and sent them, through a lawyer, a letter in which he apologized in writing. Iacono has some criminal record: driving without a licence, but not only that. In March 2017 he was arrested, together with two other people, for a series of robberies in insurance agencies, bars, tobacconists, restaurants and supermarkets in the Reggio Emilia, Modena and Mantua areas: he has already served his sentence for this judicial line.
Forghieri’s passing caused great grief: he worked as a worker for Seat Industries; he was passionate about basketball – he had played in the town team, he had been an assistant coach and referee – and cycling. He lived in Campagnola with his father, a bike mechanic, and his mother known for her work as president of the local Avis: they gave their consent to organ donation as an extreme act of generosity. so that the sudden death of their only son could save other lives.
Alessandra Codeluppi
