Bologna, 27 June 2024 – At the police station, Ivano (born Ottaviano) Perrone everyone knows it. Deputy Inspector of Flying Vehicles long-term, Perrone last May 18th was the victim of a very serious accident: while crossing the road on the pedestrian crossings in Lavinowas hit by a car, suffering multiple traumas and fractures.
He was rushed to the Major subjected to multiple interventions. And now he is recovering, little by little, amidst the affection of his daughter and colleagues who make their closeness to the deputy inspector felt every day. What hadn’t emerged so far, however, is that Perrone, even in that circumstance, he behaved like a real policeman: he was in the company of friends on that road and, at his side, he was there Roberta, 13 years old. And Perrone, when he saw the car crashing into them, instinctively pushed the girl onto the pavement, so that she wouldn’t be hit too.
A gesture that the teenager did not forget, writing a letter of thanks to the policeman: “Together with you and my parents we had to cross the road – writes Roberta, addressing the deputy inspector directly –, with your irony you forced us to cross that small stretch on the crossing, I was next to you, your shadow completely covered mine, like I’m protecting myself.”
An impression which became reality: “We were almost there on the other side – continues Roberta – when my father lets out a scream… With an instinctive gesture you pushed me towards the nearby sidewalk. And immediately afterwards a loud noise. A car came out of who knows where at high speed he hit you violently, partly taking me in too. If she had centered my fragile body I don’t know if I would be here writing these few lines.”
A shock for the thirteen year old: “I saw death before my eyesI have never been so afraid for myself and for someone else”, she writes again, worried for Perrone, defined as a ‘panther’ – the symbolic animal of the Volanti, the office in which the policeman spent almost his entire long career -, but convinced who will be able to get up again: “I saw you in the hospital broken and suffering – the letter concludes –, but I know that your old panther body will react, I want to see you smile again soon”.
