After the green light from the Senate in February, the bill introducing the crimes of nautical homicide and nautical personal injury into Italian law was approved by the Chamber 268 yes and 1 nay, which will become law with the next publication in the Official Journal . It was the Fratelli d’Italia senator Alberto Balboni, who signed the proposal, who explained the need for this rule: «An unacceptable legislative gap is finally filled. From today the penalty will be the same as road homicide and this will certainly have a deterrent effect in combating violations of the rules of elementary prudence even at sea”. The senator underlines that before the green light from Parliament, the application of simple homicide penalties was foreseen for murders or injuries caused during maritime or inland navigation. «Which are milder, and it is not clear why», added the senator to Only 24 hours.
What does the new crime involve?
Nautical homicide – and that of serious or very serious nautical personal injury, as stated in the text approved by the Senate in February – is equated to road homicide, which provides for a tightening of the penalties compared to those previously applied. The rules for road homicide are thus also extended to those who drive pleasure craft, who contemplate 2 to 7 years of imprisonment. But we must also consider the aggravating circumstances, the same as for road crime. Anyone who drives while intoxicated or under the influence of narcotic or psychotropic substances risks between 8 and 12 years of imprisonment, and is also expected to be arrested in flagrante delicto.
The accidents on Lake Garda and in the Gulf of Amalfi
In almost all the interventions in the Chamber on Wednesday 20 September during the session to approve the text, Greta Nedrotti, 25 years old, and Umberto Garzarella, 36 years old, were remembered, who were killed in 2021 on Lake Garda when a boat driven by two drunken German tourists overwhelmed them. But among the episodes remembered there is also that of last summer in the Gulf of Amalfi, where on 3 August the American tourist Adrienne Vaughan lost her life, when a 40 meter sailing ship overwhelmed the boat of 9 of her where she was with the husband.
