The ex-CEO of the Italian motorway has been sentenced to 12 years for the collapse of the Genoa bridge Development Issues

In total, 32 defendants were found guilty and 25 were acquitted or charged with a restraining order in the 2018 Morandi bridge crisis.

A court has sentenced the former CEO of a major Italian highway company to 12 years in prison for the crime the collapse of the Morandi road bridge in the port city of Genoa.

The jury handed down their verdict on Thursday in Genoa in the central region the first case on the collapse of the bridge, which killed 43 people when it collapsed on August 14, 2018. One of the most dangerous development projects in the country.

Atlantia CEO Giovanni Castellucci was found guilty of vehicular manslaughter as well carelessness related to the collapse of the Morandi bridge.

The bridge was operated by Atlantia’s auto group, Autostrade per l’Italia, which has been closely watched in this regard.

Castellucci is already in prison, serving a six-year sentence for another deadly incident in 2013 on a viaduct in southern Italy, and was not in court for the sentencing.

Also sentenced on Thursday was the former head of Autostrade, Michele Donferri Mitelli, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison and the former director of the SPEA engineering company, Antonino Galata, who received five years and six months.

In all, 32 people were found guilty and sentenced to prison terms ranging from one year and 11 months to 12 years. Others were either found not guilty, or lesser charges ended up under a restraining order.

Meanwhile, relatives of the victims flocked to the court to hear the outcome of a case that has become a symbol of Italy’s infrastructure breakdown and the delays in the administration of justice. The verdict comes after four years of trial against 57 defendants, including company executives, engineers and transport ministry officials, on charges of murder, endangering road safety and falsifying government documents.

The 1,182-meter (1,293-yard) bridge, dubbed the “Brooklyn Bridge” of Italy, was designed by architect Riccardo Morandi and was inaugurated in 1967.

By the end of the century, experts continued to warn that the building was falling into disrepair, but no major repairs were made.

Prosecutor Walter Cotugno called the bridge a “time bomb” in the sentencing.

The collapse of the 51-year-old bridge sparked a multi-year investigation into repairing its damaged structures. The 50-meter (160-foot) bridge collapsed with 35 cars on top of it, crashing into warehouses and the riverbank below.

“I want to apologize to the families of the victims, to the people of Genoa, and to all Italians for the suffering caused by the tragedy of Morandi, knowing that our actions cannot alleviate their pain,” Autostrade CEO Arrigo Giana wrote in an apology on Wednesday.

Critics say that years of inadequate maintenance, ignoring warning signs and delays in safety work contributed to the collapse, saying that important work was stopped, while profits continued to be made and distributed.

The main argument for the bridge was that the bridge had a hidden problem, which was damage to the cables that caused it to collapse, not a lack of maintenance.