The Viareggio train disaster “today as then, seems unacceptable to us”. This is the message from the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarellato remember what happened fourteen years ago in Tuscany and to reiterate once again how the “transport safetylike that on work, is an indicator of civilization that must prevail over any logic of profit”.
Memory runs to that 29th June 2009 when a freight train with wagons of LPG derailed just outside the Viareggio station. The accident caused first an explosion and then a large fire in which 32 people died and several dozen were injured.
Precisely on an issue that has also become central in the investigations and in the trial for the train disaster, the security, The Head of State focuses on underlining how it is “an essential prerequisite, as well as being a primary right of citizens and users. The established standards cannot be derogated fromindeed the level of safety must be raised through more effective controls and technologies and a general growth of awareness”, he adds. Greater protections therefore that go hand in hand with the development of infrastructure networks “and among these the railways – Mattarella recalls – which are an essential condition for the life and economic development of the country”.
The President of the Republic then applauds the families of the victims who “in pain, they were able to start a civil path to ascertain the responsibilities of what happened and to promote, everywhere, greater safety in transport”.
The presidents of the two houses of Parliament also remembered the massacre. Is Ignazio La Russa that Lorenzo Fontana. “I wish to remember with deep emotion the 32 victims and extend to their families and to the entire community of Viareggio, my most heartfelt embrace”, wrote the President of the Senate on social media, who then thanked “Il mondo che vorrei” for the passion and generosity that have always distinguished his tireless civic, social and cultural commitment alongside families, citizens and institutions so that the pain, fear and dismay of a tragedy that we cannot and must not forget, continue to guide us in building a safer future”.
Condolences also from the President of the Chamber who, in a note, underlines how the railway massacre remains “a constant warning on the importance of safety, prevention and maintenance of infrastructures”.
With the anniversary of Viareggio, the Tuscan parliamentarians of the Democratic Party are relaunching the proposal (presented a year ago in Parliament) of establish a museum “dedicated to the memory of the victims with the aim of promoting railway safety. The museum structure would be managed by a specific Foundation and subject to the supervision of the Ministry of Culture”
