Fatal car accident in Madonie: father and daughter die. Conviction and acquittal in appeal after eight years.

Last Updated: April 1, 2024

L'auto precipitò nel dirupo sulle Madonie, morirono padre e figlia: dopo otto anni una condanna e un'assoluzione in appello

Explain me briefly the following article:
Double negligent homicide. This is the accusation for which the two-year prison sentence for foreman Antonio Arena was confirmed on appeal. Instead, the road worker Sebastiano Botindari was acquitted with the formula for not having committed the act.

It was the second section of the Court of Appeal of Palermo, last Thursday, that issued the sentence, which partially overturns the sentence issued by the Termini Imerese court, which in the first instance had sentenced foreman Antonio Arena and road worker Sebastiano Botindari, accused of double negligent homicide for the deaths of Maria Santa Colantoni, 60, and her father, Carmelo Colantoni, 87, which occurred on October 16, 2016, following a road accident on the provincial road 52, in the territory of San Mauro Castelverde. The car plunged into a ravine from a height of about twenty meters. The defense of the foreman, handled by lawyer Vincenzo Lo Re, stated that they are waiting to read the reasons for the sentence to evaluate a possible appeal to the Court of Cassation. “The appeal,” he said, “is plausible and we will evaluate it carefully, also because my client did not have jurisdiction over the structural deficiencies of the road where the accident occurred.”

In the first instance, the two defendants were sentenced to two years in prison, while the two engineers from the road maintenance sector of the former Province, Elio Venturella and Salvatore Pampalone, were acquitted. In the second instance, the Public Prosecutor’s Office had requested the confirmation of the first instance sentence, while the defense lawyer of road worker Sebastiano Botindari, lawyer Raffaele Delisi, in his defense action, managed to prove that the omissions contested in the first instance did not concern the duties of competence of his client, who did not have jurisdiction over the accident site. His defense argument was accepted. “In light of the outcome of the trial, I can consider myself satisfied,” says Delisi, “although I cannot help but emphasize the complexity of the legal assistance provided to an honest man who had never set foot in a courtroom and who was about to be overwhelmed by the tortuous mechanisms of legal technicalities.”

The second section of the Court of Appeal will deposit the reasoning within ninety days. A father and his daughter lost their lives in the accident, along provincial road 52, in the territory of San Mauro Castelverde, on the Madonie mountains, in the autumn of eight years ago.