Mottarone cable car accident, Leitner compensates families of 14 victims

On the occasion of the first preliminary hearing in the trial concerning the accident of 23 May 2021, when the cabin of the Stresa-Alpino-Mottarone cable car plunged to the ground in an inaccessible and wooded area causing the death of 14 passengers, the South Tyrolean company Leitner - owner of the maintenance contract for the plant - officially informed the Gup of the compensation agreement reached between Leitner and all the families of the 14 victims of the tragedy. "The total amount of the agreement with the parties, on the amount of which the family members have requested confidentiality," the company explained in a note, "is in any case extremely significant and higher than the amount already obtained by them through insurance. The only position still open, as the procedures for the guardianship of the minor are in progress, is that of the sole survivor, little Eitan Biran. Leitner, however, is confident that this last profile will also be settled quickly.

"Given the inadequate insurance coverage of the plant's management company,' the note continues, 'Leitner has spontaneously made these very significant sums available to the families of the victims, even before being able to assert in the trial not only its complete extraneousness to the facts, but its position as a party itself injured by the event. This is a concrete gesture of solidarity and closeness towards those who have been hit so hard by an absurd event, which has broken innocent lives and destroyed entire families'.

The agreement provides for an express authorisation by the injured parties for Leitner to proceed in turn to initiate all compensatory measures, in reparation of the sums advanced, towards the persons actually responsible for the incident.

The preliminary hearing for the Mottarone tragedy opened today, 17 January, almost 2 years and 8 months after the events in the Casa della Resistenza in Verbania, transformed into a courtroom. There are eight defendants for whom the Verbania public prosecutor's office has requested committal for trial, six natural persons and two legal entities. The charges range, for various reasons, from obstructing transport safety, to wilful removal or omission of precautions against accidents at work, from culpable disaster, to multiple culpable homicide and very serious culpable injuries. The judges will also have to establish responsibility for the death of the 14 victims and the injury of Eitan, the only survivor, now a nine-year-old boy. What caused the tragedy, according to the investigations, was the breaking of the pulling rope and the blocking of the emergency brake.

In the course of the first preliminary hearing, which lasted about two hours, the request for civil action was formalised by 11 parties, six of which against all eight defendants, five against seven defendants excluding Leitner. The lawyers representing Eitan, the only survivor of the tragedy in which he lost his parents, his little brother and his great-grandparents, the Municipality of Stresa, the Piedmont Region, Anmil and some relatives of other victims, all joined the civil action against all the defendants. Against the seven defendants, but not against the South Tyrolean company, the relatives of some of the mostly Israeli victims entered an appearance. The hearing has been adjourned to 27 February, when the parties' lawyers and the public prosecutor's office will express their evaluations on the requests to constitute a civil plaintiff, after which the judge will make a decision on who to admit.