Reggio Emilia Mother and daughter die on sled: even in the appeal the tragedy remains without a culprit. Yesterday, after a deliberation session lasting five hours, the Court of Appeal of Trento, Bolzano branch, confirmed the full acquittal of Siegfried Wolfsgruber, president of the Funivie company at the time, on the charge of manslaughter. Corno del Renon Spa, the manager of the track where Renata Dyakowska, 38 years old, and Emili Formisano, 8 years old, died. Half of the family (Renata’s mother and three sisters, who became civil parties) will remain without compensation.
The tragic accident occurred on 4 January 2019 on the ski slope of the “Black Lake” in the Corno del Renon, province of Bolzano in Alto Adige, where the family was spending a short Christmas holiday. That day Renata and Emili, left alone while their father Ciro Formisano (43 years old) and his eldest son Emanuele (15 years old) were waiting for them in the valley, sat down on the sled and accidentally took a black slope reserved for skiers, immediately picking up speed and crashing into a tree. Little Emili died instantly while her mother, hospitalized in very serious conditions, never came out of the coma and passed away after 40 days of agony. Blame the deficiencies in the signage of the signs (written in German) and the absence of protective barriers, according to the accusation; contributory negligence on the part of her mother who, despite being aware of her dangerousness, wanted to please her daughter, according to the defendant’s defenders (lawyers Paride D’Abbiero and Andreas Agethle). To support the acquittal, the defendant’s defenders used, in addition to the expert opinion, the statements of her husband Ciro Formisano interviewed immediately by Tg1: “I told her not to go down there because it was too dangerous.” According to the defenders, mother Renata, aware of the risk, accepted it.
This thesis passed to the first instance: on 20 July 2023 the Trento court acquitted the plant manager.
The prosecutor’s office appealed and yesterday at second instance the attorney general Donatella Marchesini requested the conviction of the accused and the renewal of the investigation, arguing the need to have at least Ciro Formisano testify, who had never been heard in court (last year her husband and the eldest son, on the advice of the lawyer Liborio Cataliotti, accepted the out-of-court settlement with substantial compensation from the plant manager and exited the criminal trial).
The lawyer Liborio Cataliotti, who remained to protect the civil parties who refused the compensation offer (Renata’s family members), at the hearing supported the prosecution’s requests for compensation, aiming for a provisional amount of 300 thousand euros.
For their part, the legal defenders of the president of the Funivie Corno del Renon company asked for confirmation of the acquittal verdict, maintaining that no new elements emerged and reiterating the thesis of poor Renata’s acceptance of the risk.
This last thesis was fully supported by the Court of Appeal, which withdrew at 10am and came out with the verdict at 3pm: the judges rejected the hypothesis of any further investigation and the plant manager was again acquitted “because the fact does not exist”.
