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27 MAY 2021
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Three arrested after Italian cable car tragedy BY DAVID SAFFER Three people face manslaughter and negligence charges following the Italian Alps cable car disaster in Stresa that killed 14 people including five Israelis last Sunday. Only five-year-old Eitan Biran survived the terrifying crash. Doctors at Turin’s Regina Margherita hospital are easing him from an induced coma. Tragically, Eitan’s parents, Amit, 30, Tal, 26, and two-year-old brother Tom, and Tal’s grandparents, Yitzhak, 81, and Barbara Cohen, 71, did not survive. Amit’s sister Aya is by Eitan’s bedside. The deadly crash is being investigated and cost the lives of four other couples and a five-year-old child. The victims were on a Stresa-Mottarone cable car from Lido di Stresa piazza on Lake Maggiore to the Mottarone mountain in the Piedmont region when a cable snapped approaching the mountain top. The cabin fell around 20m to the ground, rolled down slopes before crashing into trees.
Italy’s alpine rescue service responded with no direct road access in difficult conditions. News outlets identified the suspects as the cable car service owner, a company director and chief of operations. Verbania province public prosecutor Olimpia Bossi, according to AFP, told a press conference the brake was tampered with in a “conscious act” and intimated the cabin was unsafe before the tragedy to avoid service disruption. Bossi added the suspects did not expect the cable to malfunction. There are reports a clamp was put on the brake a few weeks ago as a temporary fix but was in place when the horrific crash occurred. A “radical” repair would have probably shut the service. According to Bossi, the stop-gap measure was in “full knowledge” of company owners. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Pope Francis called for prayers for Eitan after the tragedy. There are reports Eitan is breathing unassisted. And a MIR shows no brain or
spinal cord damage but there were fractures sustained in the fatal crash. Doctors described a “most delicate phase” in a brief update yesterday in Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper. According to La Stampa, it is thought Eitan’s father was holding his elder son to reduce the impact of the crash, which probably saved his life. The Israeli Embassy in Rome has assisted in returning the bodies to Israel today. Tal’s father and brother immediately flew to Italy. A rabbinical service was held at Castelli Hospital in Verbania near the crash site before the bodies were flown to Israel. Israeli diplomat, Eitan Avraham, told reporters he accompanied the family at the hospital. “I couldn’t leave them alone,” he reportedly said. “I went in, I cried, we broke down. It was very difficult.” The cable car had reportedly operated without incident since late April when Italy came out of lockdown, and reports noted it had performed runs the morning of the accident. But at the end of a 20-minute journey, 1,491 meters above sea level, tragedy struck. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi described the crash as a “tragic accident”. “I
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Amit Biran, z’l, Tal Peleg-Biran, z’l, Tom Biran, z’l, and Eitan Biran
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express the condolences of the whole government to the families of the victims,” he said in a statement. Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella expressed condolences to the families and communities in mourning “from the whole of Italy”. Infrastructure Minister Enrico Giovannini announced an inquiry into the incident. “We are devastated, in pain,” Marcella Severino, Stresa’s mayor told broadcaster RAI. Rabbi Shmuel Chizkiya, of the local Chabad confirmed to Reshet Bet that Amit was studying medicine and worked at the school, community centre and synagogue. “Everyone loved him, he always had a smile on his face,” he reportedly said. “It’s a terrible tragedy. Everyone is in shock.” Aya Biran, Amit’s sister, who lives in Italy, told Italian media she found out about the tragedy on Whatsapp. Amit and Tal lived in Pavia in northern Italy. The cable car service, which carries 40 passengers, opened in 1970. Maintenance work reportedly took place between 2014 and 2016 when the service was shut.
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