An Italian court convicted 32 people, including former highway operator CEO Giovanni Castellucci, for the 2018 Genoa Morandi bridge collapse that killed 43 people. Following a four-year trial, Chief Judge Paolo Lepri’s summary found the disaster foreseeable, citing severe maintenance and monitoring failures across the highway concession, engineering subsidiary, and transport ministry.
Chief Judge Paolo Lepri Delivers Verdicts in Genoa
GENOA, Italy — After a 200-meter section of the Morandi highway bridge gave way during a rainstorm, an Italian court delivered a reckoning over the disaster that sent vehicles plunging to the ground. Packed with dozens of family members of the victims, the courtroom filled with tears on Thursday as Chief Judge Paolo Lepri read the verdicts against 57 defendants, which included former corporate executives and transport officials.
The tragedy struck shortly before noon on August 14, 2018, catching millions of travelers on one of Italy’s busiest vacation days as they headed out for the traditional Ferragosto holiday. According to Associated Press reporting, the collapse of the major route linking northern Italy with the French Riviera exposed severe, systemic lapses in the maintenance of Italian infrastructure.
Autostrade per l’Italia CEO Giovanni Castellucci Receives Prison Sentence
At the center of the judicial fallout is Giovanni Castellucci, the former chief executive of main highway operator Autostrade per l’Italia. Following four hours of deliberation in a trial that spanned four years, Castellucci received 12 years in prison—the longest sentence handed down by the court.
In total, 32 people were convicted with sentences ranging from 1 year and 11 months to 12 years, while others were found not guilty or saw lesser charges expire under the statute of limitations. Other prominent convictions included Michele Donferri Mitelli, Autostrade’s former head of maintenance, who received 11 years in prison, and Antonino Galatà, the former CEO of engineering company SPEA, who was sentenced to five years and six months.
Lawyer Raffaele Caruso emphasized that the rulings struck at the core institutions responsible for the infrastructure. Lawyer Raffaele Caruso stated that what emerges is that this bridge did not collapse by chance, but rather due to specific, precise, individualized, personalized, and specifically identified responsibilities, Caruso told a press conference.
Morandi Bridge Trial Exposes Decades of Maintenance Failures
While the court will issue its full reasoning within six months, a summary accompanying the verdict concluded that the disaster was both foreseeable and preventable.
Prosecutors argued that years of neglect led to the structural failure, pointing to a system of defects affecting one of the bridge’s stay cables. The Morandi bridge, featuring three A-shaped concrete pylons and concrete-encased stay cables, had been considered an engineering marvel when it opened in 1967.
Caruso noted that the trial surfaced evidence showing warning signs existed for decades. According to his analysis of the proceedings, maintenance started on two identical pylons beginning in 1993, but that work was never extended to the third pylon that eventually collapsed. Lawyer Raffaele Caruso stated that from 1993 onward, the problem was known, noting that they had three identical pylons, two had already shown the same defect, and no one seriously asked whether the third one had it as well, Caruso said.
The court found that defendants from the highway concession and its engineering subsidiary failed to carry out required monitoring, relying in part on a 1967 Ministry of Public Works circular. Meanwhile, transport ministry officials failed to exercise proper oversight of Autostrade’s safety monitoring.
Lawyers for Castellucci Announce Plans to Appeal Verdict
Attorneys for Castellucci announced they would appeal the verdict. In a statement, they argued that their client had relied on Italy’s leading engineers and asserted that he was being unfairly targeted.
Giovanni Castellucci’s lawyers stated that the suffering caused by the Genoa tragedy is immense and deserves respect, but they added that the gravity of the event requires justice to remain based on individual responsibility, not the search for a scapegoat.
Defendants maintained throughout the trial that the disaster was caused by a construction defect rather than maintenance failures. On the victims’ side, Egle Possetti expressed satisfaction with the outcome, stating that the verdicts proved there were serious failures in management, and 43 people paid with their lives.
Arrigo Giana, who joined Autostrade as chief executive last year, issued a public apology via an open letter published in major Italian dailies. Arrigo Giana wrote that the actions and decisions of some people left indelible scars.
