BARI – The second degree trial for the train disaster that occurred on 12 July 2016 on the Andria-Corato route began this morning at the Bari Court of Appeal. The head-on collision between two trains, which were traveling on a single alternate track regulated by the telephone lock system, considered by the prosecution to be “unsafe and obsolete”, caused the death of 23 people and the injury of 51 others.
At first instance, on 15 June 2023, the Trani court sentenced Vito Piccarreta, station master of Andria, to 6 years and 6 months in prison, and Nicola Lorizzo, engineer of the train that left Andria and headed for Corato, to 7 years. However, 14 other defendants were acquitted, excluding the civil liability of Ferrotramviaria, accused of administrative offence. Piccarreta and Lorizzo were found guilty of cooperation in a train disaster, murder and negligent bodily harm aggravated by failure to comply with workplace safety regulations. Both, jointly and severally with Ferrotramviaria, were sentenced to pay damages to the civil parties.
In today’s hearing, the General Prosecutor’s Office asked the Court, presided over by Antonio Civita, to listen to 38 witnesses, including those of the defense already heard at first instance, judicial police officials and officials of the Puglia Region, as well as technical consultants for the prosecution and defence. The deputy general prosecutor Marcello Catalano also requested the admission of a 2017 report from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, previously declared unusable by the Trani court, and the provision of an official technical consultancy to evaluate the various technical considerations advanced during the first instance trial, in particular on the obsolescence of the train interchange system.
During the hearing, deputy prosecutor Catalano highlighted the “rudimentary management, based only on telephone communication” of the train circulation system on that route, “entirely left to man” and therefore “fallible”. The defense opposed all the prosecution’s requests. The Court will decide on the preliminary requests at the next hearing, set for September 12th.
