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Former head of Italy's railways found culpable over 2009 train disaster

Xinhua, February 1, 2017 Adjust font size:

Former chief of Italy's state railway company Mario Moretti was sentenced to jail along with other executives on Tuesday over a train disaster that caused 32 deaths in the Tuscan city of Viareggio in 2009.

Moretti -- head of Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) group until April 2014, and now chief executive of Leonardo engineering and defense company -- was given 7 years in prison by a first grade court in Lucca.

Michele Mario Elia, the former head of Italian Railway Network (RFI) managing the national rail network, was sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in jail.

Overall, some 33 people and 9 companies were on trial on charges of rail disaster, multiple manslaughter, culpable fire, and culpable injuries, Ansa news agency reported.

The trial concerned the derailment of a freight train occurred in the coastal city of Viareggio, Tuscany, in the evening of June 29, 2009.

The train carried 14 wagons loaded with liquefied gas, and the derailment caused a huge explosion, which suddenly engulfed the station and some blocks of apartments nearby.

Some 11 people were immediately killed in the fire and the collapse of some buildings, and 21 injured people died in the following weeks, bringing to 32 the total death toll.

The direct cause of the derailment was the structural failure of an axle in the leading wagon of the train, according to a 2015 report by the General Directorate for railway investigations of Italy's Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport.

Of the 33 individual defendants, eight were cleared from all charges. Among those convicted was the former CEO of rail operator Trenitalia, Vincenzo Soprano, who was given 7 years and 6 months in jail.

Among the companies involved, FS and FS Logistic were cleared, while RFI and Trenitalia were held variously responsible, according to Ansa.

The convicted managers would not go to jail immediately. The first grade court's sentence could in fact be appealed against, and, under the Italian law, those convicted are allowed to wait until the final ruling to serve their sentence. Endit