Today’s edition of “Il Giornale di Sicilia” focuses on the tragedy of Casteldaccia.
They lowered themselves into the tank even though they had to remain outside and tried to unblock the purge probe, but the sewage cap that prevented the work blew and the workers were hit by a mass of waste and gas that killed them. Three of them fell to the lower floor of the tank, then three other workmates tried to rescue them but they too were hit by the hydrogen sulphide: two died and another was dying.
The reconstruction of the Casteldaccia massacre is at the center of the investigators’ work. An investigation has been launched into the tragedy at the Amap plant in via Nazionale with the hypothesis of multiple manslaughter, but there are still some unclear points regarding the fate of the five workers killed by the killer gas. Starting with why the workers lowered themselves into the structure without safety devices and protections and met their deaths. A choice which, in light of the investigations, smacks of imprudence.
At the moment we are proceeding against unknown persons and there would be no suspects but in sight of
autopsies, scheduled between today and tomorrow, several people should receive warnings also due to the need to appoint their own consultants for scientific examinations at the Institute of Forensic Medicine.
The investigations, conducted by the flying squad investigators on behalf of the Termini Imerese prosecutor’s office, have been going on at a rapid pace for two days. The police seized documents relating to the work from Amap and the Quadrifoglio Group company in Partinico, which had subcontracted the interventions from the former municipal company. The site of the tragedy and the vehicle for purging the tank that was to be used on Monday morning were also seized, as well as the company’s headquarters in Via Milano in Partinico. The prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio and the agents have already listened to the director of the works, the Amap engineer Gaetano Rotolo, who is also responsible for the safety of the construction site, but also the three surviving workers.
The fourth, Domenico Viola, is hospitalized in critical conditions at the Polyclinic. The collection of testimonies is fundamental for the reconstruction of the Casteldaccia tragedy, where the workers had already been a couple of times to drain the tank and put the manholes covered by asphalt back at street level. One of the laborers said that it would be a routine job, and that they had already carried out interventions at least twice before. But something went wrong and that attempt to unblock the probe connected to the purge device proved fatal.
