Years-long trial over Italy's devastating highway collapse ends in conviction

An Italian court this week convicted the former CEO of the country's largest highway operator over the 2018 collapse of Genoa's Morandi Bridge, which killed 43 people.

The former head of Autostrade per l'Italia was sentenced to 12 years in prison at the end of a massive trial that lasted more than four years, Italian media reported.

He was one of 53 defendants in the case, which also included other company executives, engineering consultants involved in the bridge's maintenance and monitoring, and officials from Italy's transport ministry.

Genoa's Morandi Bridge collapsed during a rainstorm on August 14, 2018, as thousands of Italians were setting off for the Ferragosto holiday. Dozens of vehicles plunged to the ground, leaving 43 people dead.

The trial exposed serious failures in the maintenance of Italy's infrastructure. Many of the defendants faced charges including negligent disaster and multiple counts of manslaughter over alleged failures to properly maintain the bridge, a key transport link between northern Italy and the French Riviera.

Prosecutors argued that years of neglected maintenance caused the collapse and sought combined prison sentences totaling nearly 400 years for all 53 defendants. The defense denied wrongdoing, arguing that the disaster resulted from a flaw in the bridge's original design rather than maintenance failures.

By Nazrin Sadigova