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Five dead, one seriously injured transported intubated to the Palermo Polyclinic and one miraculously unharmed. This is the toll of a tragic accident at work that comes from Casteldaccia, a municipality in the Palermo area. Here six workers would have been trapped while carrying out work in the sewers and would have breathed toxic fumes from the sewage. The workers were working on the maintenance of the Amap wastewater lifting plant on the Casteldaccia seafront and not in a wine tank owned by Vini Corvo as the agencies initially wrote.
The first reconstructions of the accident: two hypotheses
According to initial reconstructions, the workers would have remained stuck inside the plant in which they were working while another worker, having suffered his first illness, would have managed to get out and raise the alarm while his colleagues would have lost consciousness. The fire brigade teams arrived in Casteldaccia at 2pm to help the workers who had fallen ill inside the waste water purification tank. Six workers, of the seven involved, who were in Casteldaccia engaged in sewerage work are employees of the Quadrifoglio group srl company of Partinico (Palermo): this is a company that worked on behalf of the Palermo municipal company Amap which deals with water management in the city and in some municipalities of the province. A seventh worker would be an Amap temporary worker. According to the secretary of the Sicilian CGIL Alfio Mannino, who went to the site, there are two hypotheses on the causes that would have caused the workplace massacre in Casteldaccia where five workers who were carrying out maintenance work on the sewerage network died: the inhalation of gas or structural failure.
Governor Schifani: «Deep pain»
«What I felt at the news of the death of the workers in Casteldaccia was a profound pain – is the comment of the president of the Sicilian Region, Renato Schifani -. On behalf of myself and the entire council I express my most sincere condolences to the families of the victims for the terrible and unexpected tragedy that has struck them.” The Minister of Labor Marina Calderone telephoned the Sicilian governor: «I express my deep sorrow for the workers who died at work in Casteldaccia and my closeness to the families» she said.
«It’s a huge tragedy. We are shocked. Five young people who died for a piece of bread. It’s inconceivable” says the mayor of Casteldaccia, Giovanni Di Giacinto. And a message of condolence was published on Facebook: «The municipal administration of Casteldaccia expresses its sorrow for the tragedy that is upsetting our community on this sad day. Condolences to the families of the deceased workers.”
In Sicily last year 65 deaths at work: 16 in Palermo
In Sicily, the unions say, a worker died in Floridia last week, in 2023 there have been 65 victims of which 16 in Palermo. «The Casteldaccia tragedy responds to a pattern which has been repeated too often in recent months. It will be the judiciary that sheds light on the causes, but it will also have to be clarified whether the rules on safety have been respected and the consequent responsibilities of the companies and the client – we read in a joint note from the secretaries of Sicilian CGIL, CISL and UIL Alfio Mannino, Sebastiano Cappuccio and Luisella Lionti -. Sicily still finds itself crying deaths at work. Growing data- detect – but not that of labor inspectorate staff, marked by profound staff shortages that we pointlessly denounce from time. There were 1,043 deaths at work in Italy last year. Promote safety in every workplace, encourage appropriate interventions – say Mannino, Cappuccio and Lionti -, is ours duty. We express our condolences to the families of the victims.”
