Police: Uganda School Bus Crash Kills 21

A court in Italy has handed down sentences to 32 defendants, including former Autostrade chief executive Giovanni Castellucci, for their involvement in the catastrophic 2018 collapse of Genoa's Morandi Bridge. The disaster claimed the lives of 43 people when a section of the vital highway gave way during heavy rain.

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Today we can say there are those guilty of the murder of our relatives.

Castellucci was found guilty of vehicular homicide and negligence, receiving a 12-year prison sentence. Prosecutors argued that he had postponed essential maintenance work on the bridge. This conviction adds to his previous responsibility for a 2013 accident where a bus fell from a viaduct, killing 40 people.

The court's findings highlighted a severe lack of maintenance, noting that "not even minimal maintenance work was carried out to reinforce the stays of pillar number nine" between the bridge's inauguration in 1967 and its collapse 51 years later. While work was done on other pillars, pillar nine, which ultimately failed, had not been reinforced.

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We are here for our loved ones, in their memory.

Lawyers for the victims expressed a measure of justice, though some indicated plans to appeal the ruling. Michele Matti Altadonna, whose brother died in the collapse, stated, "Today we can say there are those guilty of the murder of our relatives." He vowed to continue seeking justice for his brother's children.

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for the four children my brother left behind... we will not give up, we will not give up until the Supreme Court

Italy's deputy transport secretary, Edoardo Rixi, called the ruling an "important step on the path of truth and justice," emphasizing that the collapse was not accidental but the result of "serious errors and omissions by those who had a duty to ensure safety."

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Between the inauguration in 1967 and the collapse, i.e. 51 years later, not even minimal maintenance work was carried out to reinforce the stays of pillar number nine