The video lasts ten seconds. Those who transformed the journey back from one trip to Venice in a tragedy with 22 deaths. It was October 3, 2023, when a bus fell from an overpass, and one thing is now clear: it could have been avoided. In recent months, the prosecutor’s consultants have managed to establish some certainties. The first: the driver, Alberto Rizzotto, has no responsibility. The second: the vehicle skidded due to the breakage of a pin which had been excessively overloaded in the previous months. Finally, the guardrail: it did not withstand the impact because it was unsuitable, no one had carried out maintenance and – this is the most impressive aspect – everyone knew that it could give way.
Diligent driver
The images taken by the camera emerged from the analysis of the black box of the bus positioned on the front of the bus, which resumes the road. The bus can be seen skidding to the right, hitting the guardrail and crumpling it, until it falls below. Ten seconds, then darkness. The prosecutor’s consultant, the engineer Nicola Chemello, also analyzed the driver’s mobile phone, in the hypothesis that he might have been distracted while driving. It emerges that Rizzotto sent the last message to a friend at 7.24pm (“Did you celebrate your birthday?”), before even starting the bus from the Tronchetto stop, then nothing more. He was a responsible driver: no internet browsing, all emails are “unread” and “all calls sent or received after 7.15pm have not been answered”. And he respected the limits: at the time of the skid he was traveling at 50 kilometers per hour.
What the expert writes
The hypothesis is that the bus skidded due to the failure of a joint connected to the steering plate. «The breaking of the rod – writes the expert Giovanni Meneghetti – affects the controllability of the vehicle and degrades its stability, without compromising it completely. When braking, both the controllability and the stability of the vehicle are compromised.” Here’s what triggered the accident. Joint failure – continues the expert – it can be explained “only by assuming that this component had already been damaged previously”. The expert defines it as “a fatigue failure”: the crack in the pin had probably begun to appear some time ago, perhaps triggered by an overload in the use of steering. It remains to be understood why he flew into the void. Engineer Placido Migliorino analyzed the guardrail and discovered that it was built at the end of the 1960s without respecting the original project: instead of an uninterrupted barrier, gaps were created. Not only that: in a 2022 technical report it emerged that it has never “been the subject of extraordinary maintenance and structural reinforcement”. In short, for over half a century no one has put their hands on it except to replace the elements damaged during accidents, but with the result that the original components with different elementsthus introducing structural discontinuities.”
The lack of checks
Furthermore, «neither the Managerneither Anasnor the Veneto regionneither Cav nor even the Mit» it appears that “they have carried out no checks” regarding the suitability of the barriers. All this while heavy traffic along that artery has increased by 750% in 50 years. The Municipality knew everything. A 2016 report: «Road barriers appear worn and oxidized»; and one from 2018: «Maintenance deficiencies have the inevitable consequence of significant degradation and decay of the mechanical characteristics of the materials». For the expert it is clear: «The Municipality of Venice, since the early 2000s, was aware of the urgent and non-deferrable need to carry out the redevelopment work on the safety barriers as those installed were not capable of providing adequate safety conditions. The Municipality, therefore, has proven itself deaf to reports of prejudice to traffic safety”.
The dynamics
That evening the bus crashed 35 meters into the barrier which, although patched, held up. But at a certain point the guardrail stops, leaving a 2.40 meter gap, before starting again. It is the famous «hole» not foreseen by the designers and into which the bus slipped, hitting (this time head-on) the new guardrail segment which had already been damaged for at least 4 years, without anyone having repaired it: the barrier crumpled and the bus crashed down. If that gap had not existed “it is plausible to hypothesize” that the guardrail “would continue to provide the bus” with sufficient resistance and keep it on the roadway. And today, they would all be alive.
