Pioltello massacre: clash between prosecutor and court over responsibilities of RFI top management

The Milan prosecutor's office will assess the possibility of an appeal after examining the detailed reasons, while the public prosecutor's documents filed in the trial and the preliminary explanations provided by the court reveal a significant divergence of interpretations regarding the roles and responsibilities of the managers and top management of Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, as reported by agencies.

The responsibilities of the top management

In the 2018 Pioltello train accident , which left three people dead and 200 people injured or psychologically traumatized, all managers were acquitted with the formula "for not having committed the act" from the charges of negligent train disaster and manslaughter and bodily harm. According to the prosecution, through prosecutors Maura Ripamonti and Leonardo Lesti, who drafted a 348-page document, the decisions regarding maintenance, which should have included attention to the deteriorated joint from which a piece of rail broke off causing the derailment, "are attributable to the so-called Senior Management of the company, directly attributable to its top management".

On the other hand, the judges of the fifth criminal section have specified, in a note from the court, that the former CEO and the other acquitted managers were not aware of the terrible conditions of the joint.

Furthermore, there is no evidence that the managers had any commission or omission regarding the "actual information flows" they had on that joint and the "inadequacy of maintenance". The prosecution criticized the lack of rules in communicating to the higher levels the anomalies detected in situations other than normal supervision. According to the prosecution, it was the duty of the top management to improve these "information flows", while the "management model of prevention" was too oriented towards the objective of avoiding interruptions in the circulation of trains for repairs.