ITALIAN BRIDGE COLLAPSE (3 videos), 43 KILLED in 2018, Now 32 Condemned to 200 YEARS in JAIL. Highway CEO already in Prison for another Disaster
by Gospa News Editorial Staff
Just under eight years after the collapse of the Morandi Bridge, the motorway viaduct that collapsed on August 14, 2018, at 11:36 a.m., killing 43 people, one of the most important and impressive trials ever held in Italian courts has concluded.
A trial involving 57 people began on July 7, 2022, for a total of 284 hearings.
According to Deputy Prosecutors Walter Cotugno and Marco Airoldi, the then and former managers and technicians of Autostrade, Spea (the subsidiary responsible for surveillance and maintenance), the Ministry of Transport, and the Authority for Transport are responsible for that disaster. According to the prosecutor, for years, savings were made on motorway safety and maintenance to ensure greater dividends for shareholders.
The charges, of varying degrees, include multiple manslaughter, vehicular homicide, intentional collapse, failure to perform official duties, undermining transportation safety, forgery, and intentional failure to provide safety devices in the workplace.
For these charges, nearly 400 years in prison and an acquittal were requested. A total of 32 sentences were handed down over nearly 200 years for the collapse of the Morandi Bridge.
Former ASPI CEO Giovanni Castellucci was sentenced to 12 years for the collapse of the Morandi Bridge.
Former ASPI CEO Giovanni Castellucci was sentenced to 12 years for the collapse of the Morandi Bridge.
The former heads of ASPI and Spea were also sentenced. Eleven years for Michele Donferri Mitelli (former ASPI CEO), the prosecutor had requested 15 years and six months. Paolo Berti (former ASPI CEO), a sentence of 5 years and six months, was requested for 12 years and six months. Finally, a sentence of 5 years and six months for Antonino Galatà (former Spea CEO), for whom the prosecutor had requested 7 years.
Mauro Coletta, former director of motorway concession oversight at the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, was sentenced to five years in prison. The prosecution had requested a ten-year sentence.
“We sought the culprit, but not the guilt. Castellucci was convicted without guilt. His only crime is that of being innocent,” commented lawyer Giovanni Paolo, who is defending the former CEO of ASPI after his conviction. “We will continue to fight for his innocence,” the lawyer concluded, “and we are confident that the appeal will correct what we believe to be a mistake.”
The public prosecution had requested 18 years and 6 months in prison for the former CEO of Aspi, Giovanni Castellucci, who had already been imprisoned for months for another motorway disaster, that of the Acqualonga viaduct in Avellino where he was sentenced to 6 years definitively by the Supreme Court and had turned himself in April 2025.
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