Italian Court Convicts 32 Officials Over 2018 Morandi Bridge Collapse

An Italian court has convicted 32 individuals in connection with the tragic 2018 collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, which resulted in 43 fatalities. Giovanni Castellucci, the former chief executive of Autostrade per l’Italia, received a 12-year prison sentence, marking the most significant legal outcome in a trial that has spanned several years. Other key convictions included the firm's former head of maintenance, Michele Donferri Mitelli, who was sentenced to 11 years, and former engineering executives who faced charges related to multiple counts of manslaughter and negligence.

The trial scrutinized years of inadequate maintenance on the 51-year-old structure, which prosecutors labeled a ticking time bomb. Evidence presented suggested that vital safety repairs were deferred to prioritize profit distribution for the motorway operator. Defense lawyers countered that the collapse resulted from an undetectable design flaw regarding the bridge's stay cables, arguing that individual responsibility should not be conflated with broad infrastructure failure.

The verdict brings a measure of long-awaited closure to the families of victims who lost loved ones during the disaster. The tragedy fundamentally altered Italy’s approach to its ageing infrastructure, leading to the eventual transfer of control over the national motorway network and the replacement of the bridge with the Genoa San Giorgio Bridge. The legal outcome serves as a critical test for Italy's judicial system, underscoring the complexities of assigning accountability in large-scale infrastructure disasters that have deep political and economic implications for the country.