Anger, grief engulf families as bridge victims are buried
GENOA, Italy — With anger and grief, Italians began burying some of their dead Friday from the Genoa highway bridge collapse, holding funerals in the victims’ hometowns. Several angry families rebuffed the offer of a state funeral, and the cardinal of Naples was merciless in his condemnation of negligence by Italian officials.
Saturday has been declared a national day of mourning in Italy and will include a state funeral at the industrial port city’s fairgrounds for those who plunged to their deaths as the 150-foot tall Morandi Bridge gave way Tuesday.
Officials say 38 people are confirmed killed and 15 injured. Prosecutors said as many as 20 people could still be missing but cautioned that some people initially reported as unaccounted for might be on vacation and hadn’t yet contacted their families.
But many of those who lost loved ones declined to participate in the state funeral. Some cited the need to bid farewell in private while others blamed the loss of life on those responsible for the bridge’s safety.
Anger and sadness erupted at the funeral Friday for four men in their 20s, all friends from the Naples seaside suburb of Torre del Greco, whose lives were snuffed out as they drove over the bridge heading to a vacation in Spain.
“You can’t, you mustn’t die for negligence! For carelessness! For irresponsibility! For superficiality!” thundered Naples Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe in his homily.
Finding the cause of the bridge’s collapse during a driving rainstorm might take weeks or months to determine. But Genoa prosecutors say they are focusing their investigation into possible criminal blame on design flaws or inadequate maintenance on the heavily traveled bridge, which was completed in 1967 and linked two high-speed highways in the city.
“My boy and the others suffered murder,” said Roberto Battiloro, whose 29-year-old son, a videographer, was one of the four friends who died. “They died an absurd, blameless death just for going on holiday.”
Other private funerals were held in Piedmont and elsewhere in Italy.
Survivors, for their part, were shocked at how they escaped with their lives.
Davide Capello, 33, a firefighter and soccer player, was driving alone on the bridge when his Volkswagen Tiguan and the road it was on plunged to the ground. He immediately understood that the structure was collapsing, watching in shock as a car in front of him “disappeared in darkness.”
Since neither the car’s windows nor its doors would budge, he unclipped his seat belt and climbed out through a hole in the rear of the car that was blasted open by the crash. Outside, he said, “there was an unreal silence” — destroyed vehicles and piles of broken concrete and asphalt, but no signs of life, no cries for help.
Rescue workers then helped him climb down from the rubble.