There is a lot of anticipation for the first appeal hearing for the trial on the Andria-Corato railway disaster of 12 July 2016, which will be held this morning starting from 9.30 in Bari. Just over a year after the first instance sentence, it opens the trial started by the protests of the Trani Prosecutor’s Office, as well as by the only 2 convicted. In fact, last June 15th the panel chaired by judge Carmen Anna Lidia Corvino (Sara Pedone and Marina Chiddo as side judges) pronounced the sentence in the trial on the train massacre, imposing 2 convictions and 14 acquittals.
First degree convictions
The condemned were the Coratino Vito Piccarreta, station master on duty in Andria and Nicola Lorizzo, train conductor who survived the clash. For Piccarreta the sentence is 6 and a half years while for Lorizzo it is 7 years. However, the other 14 defendants and the Ferrotramviaria company were acquitted (convicted only of administrative offence).
A “tragic human error”
The judges of Trani had in fact considered the disaster a tragic human error, while the Prosecutor’s Office aims to demonstrate that the cause was much more complex: lack of investment in adequate safety systems, deficiencies in staff training and repeated violations of safety regulations.
373 pages of appeal support the thesis of the Trani prosecutors, who ask for a review of the sentence and more severe sentences. At the hearing, in addition to the prosecutors and the lawyers of the defendants, 19 civil parties will also be present, including the municipalities of Andria, Corato and Ruvo.
A year later
Almost a year after the first degree sentence, the trial returns to the Court of Appeal to shed light on one of the most serious railway massacres in Italian history. The victims’ families have few words to comment on the sentence pronounced by the Court of Trani: “A great injustice”
