Run over, he dies after a month and a half

The collision with the turning car, the violent fall onto the asphalt after being thrown from the seat of his e-bike, the emergency responders who arrived and resuscitated him at the last minute and then the long hospitalization. Bruno Petenzi, a blacksmith from Branico di Costa Volpino, never recovered from that moment: born in 1968, he died a month and a half after that dramatic accident in which he was involved on March 12th, leaving in pain his large family and all the friends who in recent weeks had hoped he would recover.

The dynamics of the accident which turned into a tragedy are still being examined by the carabinieri of the Costa Volpino station, which belongs to the Clusone Company, and by the Bergamo Prosecutor’s Office, who are waiting to know the fate of the fifty-six year old before being able to define the position of the seventy-five year old from home in Costa Volpino who that evening was behind the wheel of the Fiat Panda involved in the collision. It was around 7.30 pm on March 12th when, from the intersection between via XXV Aprile and via Aria Libera in Costa Volpino, right in front of the cemetery in the hamlet of Corti, the call to 112, the single emergency number, was made.

The noise caused by the impact between the e-bike and the car, in fact, had alarmed numerous residents, many immediately pouring into the street to understand what had happened. Some motorists gave first aid to Petenzi. With them also a twenty-three year old who lives not far from the site of the incident and who volunteers for the Blue Cross of Lovere: sensing the gravity of the situation, he didn’t think twice and ran into the street to do what he could while waiting for his colleagues to arrive with the ambulance sent by 118.

Upon their arrival, the rescuers and the medical crew of the air ambulance, which took off that evening from Como, found the fifty-six year old unconscious: he had lost a lot of blood from his head and they had to resuscitate him for several minutes before managing to stabilize him, in way to load it on the air ambulance for emergency transport to the Poliambulance hospital in Brescia, where he had arrived in very serious conditions. Hospitalized in intensive care for several weeks, however, Bruno Petenzi never recovered from that accident and died a month and a half later.

According to the reconstructions of the carabinieri, the craftsman from Branico was descending towards the center of the town when, at the crossroads of the Corti cemetery, he was overwhelmed. The seventy-five-year-old driving the Panda was turning into via Aria Libera, in the direction of Lovere, when – according to the first reconstructions of the facts, still being examined by the carabinieri – he allegedly cut off the cyclist who, after a flight of a few metres, was landed on the asphalt. The e-bike and the car were seized, while the driver of the small car, unharmed, tested negative in the alcohol test to which he was subjected by the military – as always in cases of this kind – immediately after the accident . It will now be up to the Prosecutor’s Office, following the outcome of the investigations by the Costa Volpino Carabinieri, to define the possible responsibilities of the driver of the vehicle: the latter has been entered, as per practice, in the register of suspects.

In these hours, messages of condolence from friends and acquaintances are multiplying, remembering Bruno Petenzi as a cheerful and always smiling person, as well as for his profession. A blacksmith in the family artisan business, his father Giovanni, his sister Cinzia with Giorgio, his brothers Erminio with Roberta and Dario with Clara are mourning him. And then the grandchildren: Valentina with Mattia, Sharon and Alex. The funeral will be celebrated on Saturday 27 April, at 3pm, in the parish church of Branico. Friday, at 7pm, the prayer vigil at home, in via Rive 6, where Petenzi’s funeral home is set up.