Highway Executive Given 12-Year Sentence Over Deadly Bridge Collapse in Italy

Key Points:

• Giovanni Castellucci, former CEO of Autostrade per l’Italia, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for negligence and manslaughter related to the 2018 collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, which killed 43 people.
• The trial involved 57 defendants, including company officials and Transport Ministry civil servants, with 31 others convicted and sentenced for various offenses, while 25 were acquitted.
• Prosecutors argued the company failed to perform necessary maintenance on the bridge, whereas defense lawyers claimed the collapse was due to a construction defect in the original design.
• The Morandi Bridge, completed in 1967 and last inspected in 2012, was known for its innovative design but was later found to have structural weaknesses contributing to its failure.
• Following the disaster, a replacement bridge designed by Renzo Piano opened in 2020, and in 2022, the Benetton family relinquished control of Autostrade under government pressure; the current CEO publicly apologized for the tragedy.