“No one, least of all Ello’s driver and her husband, left an injured woman alone, abandoned beyond the guardrail without caring about human life, as is the profile of the hit-and-run driver and as I have heard from many quarters.” Gianluigi Valsecchi, former deputy mayor and still municipal councilor of Ello, is among the witnesses of the minutes following Monday’s dramatic accident on the Bartesate kindergarten curve in which the 69-year-old Luisa Spreafico from Malgrate died.
A 62-year-old woman – from Ello, in fact – is held responsible, for whom the charge is vehicular homicide aggravated by the driver’s flight. Her name quickly made the rounds in the small town. “The woman who appears to us to be under investigation for failure to provide assistance – says Valsecchi – was present there with her husband: the couple lives in Ello, so I know them well”. Valsecchi says: «When I got closer, I thought a dog had been hit: there were people looking beyond the guardrail of the provincial road to Colle. Being a vet, I thought I had to help the animal”: instead he found himself faced with a completely different scene.
Valsecchi states: «If I am called to court I will, of course, say what I saw. I was driving from Galbiate towards Ello when I had to slow down almost on the curve because a short column of two or three cars had formed. There were some people along the road, looking over the guardrail. I pulled over, with the four arrows. There were no other cars on the platform except mine. As soon as I got out, I recognized Ello’s spouses: his wife was also the victim of a serious road accident some time ago, from which I don’t know if she has fully recovered. Although on Monday I didn’t imagine that she could be the investor, I noticed that she was very shaken and she never spoke. The husband, however, as soon as he saw me, shouted: “Gigi, we need a doctor here”. I replied: “I’m a vet, what should I do?”, and I looked over the guardrail too: there was a woman. The fellow citizen and another man continually called her: “Madam, madam”.
Valsecchi continues: «The woman was on her side, like when you sleep on the coast. She was breathing: irregularly, but she was breathing. However, she was already losing blood from one ear». A symptom, unfortunately, clear. Valsecchi says: «I asked my fellow citizen: “Did you call for help?”. He assured me: “Yes, Gigi, they’re coming”. A couple of minutes later, in fact, the siren was heard. In the meantime, the fellow citizen had collected the lady’s shopping, which had scattered on the road, putting her glasses in the bag too, and the other man was scolding him, that he should leave them where they were for the carabinieri to investigate. In all this – Valsecchi says – I feel like saying that (obviously without wanting to replace any judge and with total respect for the investigations) the definition of pirate does not seem adequate to me: the rescue was called by the person who had the accident, probably because the pedestrian was in front of him on a curve, and the exact dynamics need to be ascertained. If she left immediately, she then immediately came back. What happened is heartbreaking, but the facts I witnessed are these: as soon as the ambulance arrived, the paramedics shouted: “Everyone out”; the fellow citizen turned to his wife and said: “Let’s go”. We all left. Without waiting for the carabinieri, yes, whose car I only saw in the photos in the newspaper: but no one, least of all Ello’s driver and her husband, left the injured woman alone. All laws and responsibilities aside, but both remained there, next to her, until the end, trying to keep her awake».
