An atrocious death. A 25 meter leap into the void, then the dive into the sea. Oriana Bertolino left like this, during a quad excursion on the cliffs of Wied il-Mielaħ, a fjord with walls as high as ten-storey buildings, overlooking the Sicilian Channel, at the northernmost point of the island of Gozo , in Malta. Only a few weeks ago her last post on Facebook: «And nothing. Friends get married, live together and start families. I play on the Play Station, read a fantasy book a day and save animals. There is no such thing as “right” for everyone. Let everyone be calm in their own way.”
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The accident
Oriana Bertolino, the 31-year-old volleyball player from Marsala, was 31 years old and met what Maltese police sources defined as “an atrocious death” on Saturday evening when she fell into the sea during a quad excursion on the cliffs of Wied il-Mielaħ, ( Valle del Sale, in Maltese), a fjord with walls as high as ten-storey buildings, overlooking the Strait of Sicily, in the northernmost point of the island of Gozo, from where it is also normal to see Etna on clear days. Oriana had come to Malta with a friend, a 47-year-old fellow citizen, with whom she had gone on a quad bike trip that ended with a jump into the sea, from which the man was saved. In a desert landscape of rare beauty, on terraces suspended between the blue of the Mediterranean and the sky, reachable only on foot and where salt has been collected for millennia, you can admire the sunset with a panorama dominated by the spectacular rock arch that became popular after the collapse of the iconic Azure Window on the night between 7 and 8 March 2017, knocked down by the nature that had created it. It was a jump of over 25 meters directly into the sea that killed the woman, who aspired to a career as a volleyball coach. More or less in the same place, a ledge of a couple of meters suspended in the void, in 2018 a Swiss tourist who had tried to ride a mountain bike died. The Italian Embassy in Malta, informed by the Maltese police, maintained constant contact with the victim’s family, until the official identification communicated by the Maltese police late this afternoon.
The cause
The Maltese police reported that the driver of the quad, who managed to escape with only minor injuries, lost control of the vehicle, apparently due to a steering problem. And this would have prevented him from changing direction. Furthermore, it seems that the guide of the hiking group was afraid of arriving late and missing the sunset and therefore encouraged everyone to speed up. The dust raised and the poor grip, being on the dirt road, would have prevented the driver of the quad from stopping in time before the end of the cliff, which overlooks the sea. Bertolino’s body was recovered after searches, but the young woman died from her injuries. The man, however, was treated for minor injuries at Gozo hospital. Magistrate Brigitte Sultana is leading an investigation. Oriana Bertolino worked in a veterinary clinic. The Times of Malta opens its online edition by breaking the news by defining the Sicilian volleyball player as “a gentle soul” and among the comments of condolence and dismay, the main one points out those who regret that Oriana was preparing for a “brilliant career” on the bench.
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