Page 30 - bon-dia-aruba-20210531

A30 world news
Dialuna 31 Mei 2021

Judge: Blame in Italy cable car deaths rests with technician

disable it because it kept locking on Leitner to keep the funicular safe and
its own while the car was in service, operational.
said his lawyer, Marcello Perillo.
Perocchio similarly denied any
Speaking to reporters outside Verba- knowledge of Tadini’s maneuver, ac-
nia prison, Perillo said Tadini never cording to his lawyer Andrea Da Pra-
would have left the bracket in place if to, who suggested his client had been
he thought doing so might endanger arrested because the prosecutor felt
passengers. pressure to produce quick results in
the investigation into the tragedy.
“He is not a criminal and would never
have let people go up with the brak- As he left the prison, Perocchio said
ing system blocked had he known he was “desperately sad” for the vic-
that there was even a possibility that tims and never would have autho-
the cable would have broken,” Perillo rized disabling the emergency brake.
said. “He can’t even begin to get his
head around the fact that the cable “I’ve been working in cable cars for
broke.” 21 years and I know there’s no rea-
son in the world to do that,” he told
Based on Tadini’s testimony, prosecu- reporters.
(AP) — The three suspects in It- overlooking Lake Maggiore in north- tors had hypothesized that the man-
aly’s cable car disaster that killed ern Italy snapped and the emergency agers knew about the jerry-rigged The judge’s ruling noted that Tadini
14 people were allowed to leave brake failed to prevent the cable car brake and had an economic reason had called Perocchio twice to send in
prison Sunday after a judge indi- from reeling at high speed backward in using it to keep the funicular run- repair crews since the lift reopened
cated that for now blame fell on down the support line. The cable car ning. Prosecutor Olimpia Bossi said because of the brake problem, but
just one: a service technician who pulled off the line entirely after pass- the owner would have had to have that the problem persisted after the
intentionally disabled the car’s ing the support pylon, crashed to the taken the whole lift out of service for crews left. Even though Tadini insist-
emergency brake because it kept ground and then rolled down the the more extensive, “radical” repairs ed that Perocchio and Nerini knew
locking spontaneously. mountain until it was stopped by a that were necessary. about his patchwork repair, the judge
stand of trees. said he likely was trying to share the
Judge Donatella Banci Buonamici The lift, which features four large blame on the people who could af-
said there wasn’t sufficient evidence The lone survivor, 5-year-old Eitan tram cars bringing passengers up and ford to pay damages, and wasn’t a
suggesting the owner of the Mot- Biran, remains hospitalized but con- down the mountain, only reopened credible enough witness to warrant
tarone cable car company, Luigi Neri- scious, with his aunt looking after on April 26 after a lengthy COV- their continued detention.
ni, or the maintenance chief, Enrico him. Eitan’s Israeli-born parents, his ID-19 shutdown and was gearing up
Perocchio, knew that the technician younger brother and his great-grand- for the summer tourist season in a Leitner, the maintenance company of
had deactivated the brake on several parents were killed in the disaster and picturesque part of northern Italy. which Perocchio is an employee, has
occasions even before the May 23 di- their remains were sent back to Israel. said that using the fork-shaped brack-
saster. But lawyers for Nerini and Perocchio ets was “expressly forbidden” when
It isn’t known why the pulling cable said the two denied knowing any- passengers were in the cabin. The
After evaluating prosecutors’ request snapped. thing about Tadini’s maneuver and brackets are meant to be used when
for continued detention of the three, said they had no reason to let a cable the cabin — part of a transport system
Buonamici determined there was The Vipiteno, Italy-based company car without a brake system operate. known as an aerial tram — is parked
no flight risk, ordered the managers that maintains the lift, Leitner SpA, The judge concurred, noting that in the station for the night or to do
freed while allowing the technician, has said “no irregularities were de- neither they nor Leitner, the mainte- repair work.
Gabriele Tadini, to leave under house tected” during the November 2020 nance company, would have had an
arrest. The three men, who remain magnetic testing of the lead cable, and interest in doing so. Leitner has provided investigators
under investigation, left Verbania that every other annual check hadn’t with documentation of the lift’s
prison early Sunday, accompanied by turned up problems either. Nerini’s attorney, Pasquale Patano, maintenance record and declared it-
their lawyers. said the owner “had no interest in not self an injured party in the case, saying
Tadini admitted during questioning repairing the cable car” since he paid a it plans to donate any awarded dam-
Fourteen people were killed when the that he had left a fork-shaped bracket flat fee of 150,000 euros ($183,000) a ages to the families of the victims.
lead cable of the Mottarone funicular on the cable car’s emergency brake to year for unlimited maintenance from

In Mexico, cartels are hunting down police at their homes

(AP) — The notoriously poses the most direct chal- Guanajuato in May. najuato.” have been killed, or an aver-
violent Jalisco cartel has lenge yet to President Andrés age of about 75 officers each
responded to Mexico’s Manuel López Obrador’s “For each member of our Numbers of victims are hard year — more than are killed
“hugs, not bullets” policy policy of avoiding violence firm (CJNG) that you arrest, to come by, but Poplab, a by gunfire or other assaults
with a policy of its own: and rejecting any war on the we are going to kill two of news cooperative in Gua- on average each year in the
The cartel kidnapped sev- cartels. your Tacticals, wherever they najuato, said at least seven entire United States, which
eral members of an elite are, at their homes, in their police officers have been has 50 times Guanajuato’s
police force in the state But the cartel has already patrol vehicles,” the banner killed on their days off so far population.
of Guanajuato, tortured declared war on the govern- read, referring to the cartel this year. In January, gunmen The problem in Guanajuato
them to obtain names and ment, aiming to eradicate by its Spanish initials. went to the home of a female has gotten so bad that the
addresses of fellow offi- an elite state force known as state police officer, killed her state government published
cers and is now hunting the Tactical Group which the Guanajuato-based security husband, dragged her away, a special decree on May 17
down and killing police at gang accuses of treating its analyst David Saucedo said tortured her and dumped her to provide an unspecified
their homes, on their days members unfairly. there have been many cases. bullet-ridden body. amount of funding for pro-
off, in front of their fami- “If you want war, you’ll get a “A lot of them (officers) have tection mechanisms for po-
lies. war. We have already shown decided to desert. They took Guanajuato has had the high- lice and prison officials.
that we know where you are. their families, abandoned est number of police killed “They have been forced to
It is a type of direct attack on We are coming for all of you,” their homes and they are flee- of any Mexican state since quickly leave their homes
officers seldom seen outside reads a professionally printed ing and in hiding,” Saucedo at least 2018, according to and move, so that organized
of the most gang-plagued na- banner signed by the cartel said. “The CJNG is hunting Poplab. Between 2018 and crimes groups cannot find
tions of Central America and and hung on a building in the elite police force of Gua- May 12, a total of 262 police them,” it reads.