Italian authorities have already identified 7 of the 21 victims of the serious bus accident in Venice that has shocked Italy. According to the government delegate in Venice, Michele di Bari, most of the victims were foreign tourists heading to the Hu campsite on the outskirts of the city, among whom were a baby of a few months, a 12-year-old years and another minor girl. Five of the deceased are Ukrainians, another was a German tourist and the last is the driver of the vehicle, an Italian national.
Among the 15 injured, distributed in different hospitals in the area, eleven have been identified. Two of them are Spanish. As this newspaper has learned, it is a man and a woman and his life is not in danger. The rest are four Ukrainians, one German, one French, one Croatian and two Austrians. Four are in intensive care.
The driver of the vehicle, Alberto Rizzotto, 40, also died in the accident. He would be the only Italian victim, and his colleagues define him as an expert driver who had worked in the sector for seven years. The Venice Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation to clarify the causes of the accident, but for now the main hypothesis is that the driver suffered a sudden health problem and lost control of the bus, since there are no braking signs and he was traveling in a straight section at low speed. It is also unlikely that he fell asleep since he had only been on shift for 90 minutes.
The firefighters, who worked all night, managed to remove the bus around five in the morning. “It has been a complicated job,” explained the rescue teams, who speak of a “tragedy of young people, except for some adults.”
The electric bus broke the guardrail and fell about fifteen meters from a ramp. He then crashed into the space next to the train tracks at Mestre station, causing the vehicle to catch fire. Around five in the morning the firefighters managed to remove the bus, but it is feared that the identification of all the victims will take longer due to the poor condition of the bus due to the flames. Of the victims, 19 died on the spot and another two died in the ambulances.
About twenty ambulances and firefighting teams quickly moved to the scene of the accident, which forced the movement of trains between Mestre and the Santa Lucía station in the center of the city of canals to be blocked.
“I express my deep condolences, personal and that of the entire Government, for the serious incident that occurred in Mestre. The thoughts go to the victims and their family and friends. “I am in close contact with Mayor Luigi Brugnaro and with the Minister (of the Interior) Matteo Piantedosi to follow the news of this tragedy,” said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. She also expressed her solidarity with the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and the President of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia. "An apocalyptic scene, there are no words," said Mayor Brugnaro, who has declared citizen mourning.
