The three died while six were injuredincluding a foreign family with two children on board.
The images from the cameras, which ended up in the investigation documents, show the Honda – driven by Robert Friendrich Fendt – speeding at high speed and colliding with the Fiat, which was at the motorway toll booth at the time.
The images prove that there is no sign of braking, as the Livorno traffic police officers later ascertained, who immediately rushed to the scene of the tragedy and began investigating. The vehicles involved were seized. The Prosecutor’s Office intends to have it analysed the “black box” of the Honda driven by Robert Friendrich Fendtgiven that it could – provided it was not destroyed or partially compromised after the accident – contain all the data of the vehicle.
Did the brakes fail? Was there an engine malfunction?
It is impossible, at least for the moment, to understand whether it was a distraction, a fall of sleep on the part of Robert Friendrich Fendt: only the results of the autopsy examination – ordered by the Prosecutor’s Office – will be able to reveal, in the meantime, whether the man had an illness that caused him to lose control of the vehicle.
The Labronica judiciary also ordered tests to understand whether Robert Friendrich Fendt had been drinking or under the influence of drugs. These are ritual investigations which will serve to confirm or exclude what are currently pure hypotheses. What is certain is that, before the impact, no request for help was received from the German couple at 112 Nue or even at 118.
According to an initial reconstruction by the Livorno traffic police, it could be precisely an illness of the 61-year-old German who was driving the Honda that triggered the accident. The car arriving at high speed on the group of vehicles queuing at the A12 barrier triggered a domino effect which ended up destroying part of the toll booth itself.
In the last five years, five victims have been registered near that toll booth: 3 from last Sunday, two due to illness or falling asleep. The mayor of Rosignano, Daniele Rosati, declares himself willing to endorse a security request «even if it is not within our competence. The community was deeply affected by this tragic episode. We express condolences to the families of the victims.”
