The former CEO of Italian rail
network company RFI, Maurizio Gentile, was among 10 people
indicted Monday for a January 25, 2018 derailment that killed
three people near Milan.
The train derailed at Pioltello near Milan leaving three women
dead and five injured people in a serious condition, as well as
another eight injured people as code yellow for the emergency
room and 33 code green.
Railway company RFI found a 20-centimetre section of
track that broke away some 2km from the derailment and this may
have been the cause of the disaster, according to experts.
It is possible that the wheels of three wagons came off the
tracks there, but the coaches continued to move with the rest of
the train until hitting an electricity pylon, sparking the crash
at 6:57 at Seggiano di Pioltello.
The Trenord train, which had 350 people aboard, mostly
commuters, departed from Cremona and was heading towards Milan's
Piazza Garibaldi station.
The victims were named as Pierangela Tadini, a
51-year-old originally from Caravaggio but resident in Vanzago
in the province of Milan; Giuseppina Pirri, 39, from
Cernusco sul Naviglio; and Ida Maddalena Milanesi, 61,
originally from Caravaggio.
The driver said "I slammed on the brake as soon as I heard
her vibrating, but it was too late".
He said the train was "already off the rails".
The train went through the station at Pioltello leaving a
"stream of sparks" behind it, a prosecutor said.
The incident was the latest in a number of fatal train
accidents in Italy.
In 2016 23 people were killed when two trains collided in
Puglia.
An explosion that occurred after a goods train carrying
petroleum derailed in 2009 claimed 32 lives in Viareggio,
Tuscany.
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