Palermo man falls off scooter due to pothole: ambulance arrives an hour later

Last Updated: May 13, 2024

Sciacca, tre tir e un'auto si scontrano sulla statale 115: un morto

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A man fell from a height of ten meters while riding his scooter due to a pothole in Via Castelforte in Palermo. The city workers tasked with the job scarified the asphalt, but next to a manhole they left an unmarked hole measuring 20 centimeters by 50 centimeters and 10 meters deep. With poor lighting, the trap on the asphalt was not visible, causing the motorcyclist to have a bad fall. He hit his head, but his helmet protected him, though he did sustain various abrasions and a lot of fear. The hole was filled by the workers after the arrival of the municipal police who documented the incident.

To determine whether there were any fractures, the man had to be admitted to the emergency room. However, the ambulance, called at 8:28 pm, arrived after an hour. The man was only entrusted to the hospital staff at 9:43 pm. The delay in the ambulance’s arrival was due to the fact that at that moment there were no available ambulances, as they were all blocked in front of the Palermo emergency rooms.

The young Palermo man’s ordeal did not end there. At Villa Sofia’s emergency room, a new long wait began. It took six hours for him to be treated and discharged. The confirmation that the fall had only caused wounds and not fractures came only at four in the morning.

“In recent months,” said Fabio Genco, responsible for the 118 emergency dispatch in the western region, “the wait times for emergency response have improved. The ambulances are always available. Yesterday, something happened that we are investigating.”