DThe trip was almost over: a day in Venice, then a bus from the lagoon city back to the Italian mainland. To a campsite in the Marghera district, where overnight stays cost significantly less than near St. Mark’s Square or Rialto Bridge. Usually less than a quarter of an hour drive. But then, just three kilometers from the destination, disaster struck: for an unknown reason, the bus carrying almost 40 day-trippers veered off the higher road and fell 15 meters into the depths. 21 people die and 15 are injured in the accident on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday evening, the Italian news agency Ansa reported, citing the responsible prefecture, that three Germans were among the fatalities.
Nine Ukrainians, four Romanians, two Portuguese, one Croat and one South African were also killed. The Italian driver was also killed. According to Ansa, ten of the 15 injured were still being treated in the intensive care unit.
One and a half meter long gap in the guardrail
On Thursday evening, Transport City Councilor Renato Boraso announced that the guardrail at the point where the vehicle fell did not meet applicable safety standards. Accordingly, plans for a renovation had been in place since 2016, but work only began in September.
The Italian newspaper “La Stampa” wrote about a “scandal” with regard to securing the bridge. Accordingly, there was a one and a half meter long gap in the guardrail at the accident site. The metal railing behind this gap could not withstand the impact of the bus. According to previous findings, this scraped several meters along the guardrail before reaching the gap and falling down.
After the accident, cell phone videos quickly made the rounds. They are images of horror: a view down from the bridge. There isn’t much left of the guard rails. The almost completely burnt out bus in the headlights. Only poorly covered corpses. In between is the Patriarch of Venice, Bishop Francesco Moraglia, who, standing alone, blesses the dead that night. In the words of Mayor Luigi Brugnaro: “An apocalypse.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed “her deepest condolences.”
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) also expressed her condolences to the victims and their families. French President Emmanuel Macron, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Charles Michel made similar statements.
Because of the fire, it is feared that it could take a long time before the identities of all those who died are determined with certainty. Some of the injured come from Ukraine, Spain, Austria, France and Croatia.
Speculation about the bus driver becoming weak
Because it is unclear why the bus suddenly fell off the bridge shortly after dark around 7:45 p.m., particular interest is now focused on the bus driver. According to colleagues, he was a reliable man with many years of professional experience. The bus belongs to a company called La Linea Spa and was chartered from a campsite in Marghera.
It is speculated that the driver may have lost control of the bus due to a fainting spell – or that he may have fallen asleep. The public prosecutor’s office initiated an investigation that night. Other possibilities are not ruled out either. The investigators hope to obtain information from a surveillance camera that keeps an eye on the traffic at this point on the approximately 70-year-old street. A camera in the modern bus may also have recorded the scene. The burnt-out wreck was still being searched for on Wednesday.
The bus company’s managing director, Massimo Fiorese, was quoted by Italian broadcaster Rai as saying: “What we know is that there is a fixed camera on the bridge. From what I saw in the pictures, the bus can be seen coming at less than 50 kilometers per hour. You can see the brake lights lighting up. So he braked. Then you see the vehicle leaning against the guardrail, tipping over and falling down.”
“The magnitude was terrible because he fell from a height of more than ten meters,” said Venice fire chief Mauro Luongo. What made matters worse was that it was an electric bus and its batteries had caught fire. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi had spoken of a bus running on natural gas and said that the fire had “spread quickly” due to the supply of methane gas. An AFP photographer observed that emergency services first had to wait for the bus’s battery to cool down on the wrecked bus lying on the roof.
The flags will fly at half-mast in front of state buildings on Wednesday. Mayor Brugnaro is receiving letters of condolence from all over the world. The 15 injured people are being cared for in hospitals throughout the region. Several are in intensive care. Rail traffic from the mainland towards the lagoon is now running normally again. And in the morning the HU campsite shuttle buses started operating again.
Flags fly at half-mast in front of the Dell’Angelo Hospital, where the injured bus passengers were taken after an accident in Mestre, near the city of Venice
Source: dpa/Antonio Calanni
The head of an association of traffic accident victims, Domenico Musicco, said it was “a tragedy with announcement”. The affected road should actually have been modernized to rule out a bus crash. The road was only secured by “a simple railing,” emphasized the operator of the accident vehicle, Massimo Fiorese, to the Italian news agency Ansa. Five years ago, a dilapidated motorway bridge collapsed in Genoa, northern Italy, killing 43 people.