The 68-year-old Carmelo Calanni Rindina, now retired employee of the municipality of Tortorici, was acquitted for not having committed the crime.
The acquittal sentence was pronounced by the Court of Appeal of Messina, with the acceptance of the appeal proposed by the lawyer Alessandro Pruiti, defender of the accused, who was sentenced in the first instance in April 2023 by the panel of the Court of Patti to two years of imprisonment, with the conditional suspension of the sentence, and compensation for damages to the civil parties.
Calanni Rindina, at the time responsible for the technical sector of the municipality of Tortorici and delegate for the ordinary and extraordinary maintenance of the roads, was accused of grave negligence and negligence for violation of safety regulations, with the failure to provide adequate protection barriers on that stretch of road at the height of the Franchina viaduct, right in the center of Oricenza, from which the car driven by the young student crashed after skidding, falling into the bed of the Grado river.
A terrible flight that left the girl with no escape, while the other occupants of the vehicle, the victim’s boyfriend and sister, suffered particularly serious injuries.
According to the indictment, the lateral barrier at the edge of the road did not comply with safety parameters, with a simple iron railing in a poor state of maintenance, an advanced state of oxidation and evident signs of flaking of the metal, which it failed to contain the impact of the car.
