Investigators examine video of Italian cable car to clarify accident

The local public prosecutor’s office is examining video recordings from 2014 and 2018 to investigate the cable car accident in northern Italy that resulted in 14 deaths.

The investigating public prosecutor in the Piedmontese town of Verbania, Olimpia Bossi, confirmed the move to the news agencies Adnkronos and ANSA early on Wednesday.

German public broadcaster ZDF had reported on the footage on Tuesday evening in the programme “Frontal 21’’, reinforcing the suspicion that clamps had already been used to block the emergency brake on the gondolas before the accident on May 23.

The footage came from a man from Switzerland who filmed the cable car in 2014 and 2018 out of interest in the technology, the TV report said.

After the crash, the man, who had worked in the industry himself, rummaged through his footage and discovered the clamps in it.

These devices may be used for maintenance work but the video also showed people in the gondola.

Bossi did not want to immediately comment on the footage, ANSA quoted the prosecutor as saying.

The cable car on Monte Mottarone, west of Lake Maggiore in the Piedmont region, had crashed shortly before reaching the mountain station.

Only one little boy survived the accident and is still in a hospital in Turin.

For reasons that have not yet been explained, the cable car’s pull rope snapped.

At this moment, the emergency brakes on the carrying cable should have intervened and prevented the fall, but the clamps deactivated the mechanism.

A technical supervisor is now under house arrest. According to media reports, he admitted that he had deactivated the emergency brakes recently, as they had apparently been causing disturbances in the operation of the cable car.

Cable cars in Italy had only been allowed to transport tourists again since May 22 after the relaxation of coronavirus regulations. The accident happened one day later.