Criminal probe launched
Structure known to be deteriorating
GENOA, Italy — As deaths from the bridge failure in Genoa rose Wednesday to 39, it became clear that while the collapse was a horror, to many people it was not exactly a surprise.
Years before part of the structure dissolved in a lethal cascade of concrete and steel, it required constant repair work, and experts in Parliament, industry and academia raised alarms that it was deteriorating and possibly dangerous.
Those warnings fueled an intense round of finger-pointing Wednesday among political parties and the private company that operated the bridge, none offering an answer to a set of crucial questions that will not be answered quickly: Should everyone involved have anticipated a disaster of this scale?
“It was not destiny,” said Genoa’s chief prosecutor, Francesco Cozzi, who announced that he would conduct a criminal investigation into the failure of the Morandi Bridge.
When the bridge fell shortly before noon Tuesday, Genoa lost a major artery that crosses the Polcevera River and connects the eastern and western parts of the city. The route is traveled by tens of thousands of commuters daily and much of the freight passing through the city’s busy port.
Italy has suffered a series of bridge collapses in recent years and many other spans are showing serious wear.
A day after the collapse, as many as 1,000 rescue workers in search of victims, alive or dead, swarmed over a tangled mass of rubble and vehicles strewn across a riverbed, roads, railroad tracks and a warehouse. More than 600 people evacuated apartment buildings, miraculously spared, under part of the bridge that remained standing. Some gathered somberly at the city’s morgue and hospitals, hoping for word on missing family members and friends, while others gazed in wonder at the empty space where the span should have been, and at the wreckage beneath it.
The disaster poses a challenge to the governing coalition, which rode to office this year on populist discontent but is led by people with little or no government experience. Now, they must manage a crisis with the eyes of the nation on them.
Speaking after a Cabinet meeting in Genoa, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced a 12-month state of emergency for the region, opening the way for government aid, and said that 5 million euros — about $5.7 million — had been allocated for the most immediate needs. He added that the government would name a commissioner to lead reconstruction, a plan intended to bypass bureaucratic delays.
“These are tragedies that are unacceptable in a modern society, and this government will do everything to ensure that it never happens again,” he said.
The collapse prompted new scrutiny of the Five Star Movement, a partner in the governing coalition.
As members of the opposition, local and national officials of Five Star, including its founder, Beppe Grillo, had opposed plans to expand Genoa’s highway network, including building a new highway, saying that the project would most likely fall victim to corruption and uncontrolled costs.
Some Italian news organizations reported that Five Star officials had previously mocked concerns about the condition of the bridge, which opened in 1967.
The Five Star movement has objected repeatedly to large-scale public works projects. In a post on his blog on Wednesday titled “I Love Genoa,” Grillo reiterated his view that it was essential to “re-evaluate potential monsters,” even those built with public money for the public benefit. “Contemplating this horror I am all the more convinced that all monumental public works” must be reviewed, he wrote.
Other Five Star officials insisted Wednesday that the party’s opposition to the highway project had nothing to do with the bridge collapse. Instead, they blamed Autostrade per l’Italia, the company that operated the A10 highway, including the bridge, saying it had charged heavy tolls on the many highways it manages, but did not invest enough in maintenance.