Viareggio massacre, 4 million from the Ministry of Culture to build a museum
The initiative to remember the tragedy that claimed 32 lives and to turn the spotlight on railway safety
A EUR 4 million grant from the Ministry of Culture to build a museum dedicated to the memory of the strage of Viareggio. The tragedy occurred on 29 June 2009, when a train carrying flammable liquefied gas derailed causing 32 deaths. The announcement was made by Forza Italia national deputy secretary Deborah Bergamini.
The Tragedy
It was a summer evening 17 years ago when the FS locomotive E.656 derailed while carrying 14 LPG tanks. Survivors of the massacre recounted how the sky above Viareggio was red-hot. Multiple explosions and high flames reduced the houses near the railway station to smoking skeletons. Many residents were pulled alive from the rubble, followed by lengthy hospital stays due to the burns they suffered.
On 27 May last year, the Court of Appeal of Florence confirmed the five-year sentence for former FS and Rfi CEO Mauro Moretti and the sentences for the other 11 defendants for whom the judges, after a referral by the Court of Cassation, had been called upon to quantify the sentences limited to the extent of the sentence reduction imposed for general mitigating circumstances.
