21 dead in Venice
Surveillance video shows the coach shortly before the accident – police are still looking for the cause
Watch the video: Surveillance camera shows bus moments before the accident in Venice.
On this surveillance video from the city of Venice, you can see the moment when a tourist bus broke through the guardrail in the Mestre district late on Tuesday evening and fell more than ten meters. At least 21 people died in the accident, including several children. One of the fatalities and one injured person come from Germany. The Foreign Office confirmed that Germans were also affected by the serious bus accident in Venice. There are numerous injured people, some of whom are in critical condition. The governor of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, was shocked. “It’s a tragedy. We have 21 deaths and 15 people are in hospital at the moment. Five or six people are in critical condition, they have head injuries.” The accident occurred shortly before 8:00 p.m. local time on a straight and normally busy road that connects Mestre with the historic center of Venice and runs along a railway line. The bus caught fire immediately after impacting the railway tracks and overhead wires under the bridge. According to the fire department, the fire was difficult to extinguish. It could take longer to identify all the victims, they said. How the accident could have happened was still unclear on Wednesday. According to the authorities, the driver of the bus, a 40-year-old Italian, is also among the fatalities. Witness statements and images from surveillance cameras should now be evaluated.
At least 21 people, including children, die in an accident with a tourist bus in Venice. Images from a surveillance camera show the bus until shortly before the accident.
The 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 came off the higher road in the mainland district of Mestre on Tuesday evening and fell 15 meters into the depths. The result: at least 21 fatalities and 15 injured.
As is often the case these days, cell phone videos quickly make the rounds. They are images of horror: a view down from the bridge. There isn’t much left of the rusted 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.”
The day after, there are still many questions unanswered. Of the 21 dead, only seven had been identified as of late morning. Initially it was said that nine had already been identified. At least four of them come from Ukraine. The Foreign Office in Berlin confirmed that Germans are also affected. According to the Italian authorities, a holidaymaker from Germany is among the fatalities.
Identification of the dead after the bus accident is ongoing
It is feared that because of the fire it will take some time until the identities of all the dead are confirmed beyond doubt. The Venice public prosecutor, Bruno Cherchi, told the TV channel RaiNews24 that they therefore wanted to carry out DNA tests. At least one of the 15 injured has German citizenship. The others come from Ukraine, Spain, Austria, France and Croatia.
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The driver of the bus, a 40-year-old Italian, was among the dead. Because it is unclear why the bus fell so suddenly from the bridge shortly after dark around 7:45 p.m., it is now of particular interest. According to colleagues, he was a reliable man with many years of professional experience. In addition, the man had only started work 90 minutes before the accident. The bus belongs to a company called La Linea Spa and was chartered from a campsite in Marghera.
The cause of the accident in Venice is still unclear
It is speculated that the driver may have lost control of the bus because of a faint attack – 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 initially hoped to obtain information from a surveillance camera that monitors the traffic on the Rizzardi Bridge at this point on the approximately 70-year-old road. However, in the video, the crucial scene of the crash is obscured by another bus – you can only see the bus crashing over the guardrail from a distance. A camera in the modern electric bus may also have recorded the scene. The camera was still being searched for in the burned-out wreckage 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 you can see the bus coming at less than 50 kilometers per hour. You see the brake lights flashing. So he braked. Then you see the vehicle leaning against the guardrail, tipping over and falling down.”
The vehicle is the shuttle bus of a campsite called HU. There are also normal hotel rooms and places for mobile homes on the site. Some young German tourists who stayed overnight there said on television on Tuesday evening: “We were supposed to take the next bus. But it didn’t come. And then we heard it. It’s a tragedy.”
Day tourists commute to the old town by coach
It has long since become a habit for day-trippers from the mainland suburbs of Marghera or Mestre to commute to the old town. Both are separate districts of Venice, but are often referred to as the “ugly sisters”. You can sleep and eat much cheaper there. You can get to the lagoon with your own car, by train or by bus.
Some people in Venice don’t like that. The city – one of the most famous holiday destinations in the world – receives more than five million visitors every year. During high season, there are often more than 100,000 strangers in the city at the same time, most of them for just a few hours. For the first time next year, Venice wants to charge short-term vacationers who don’t stay overnight for admission on around 30 days: five euros per person.
But that’s just a minor matter the day after the disaster. 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.