The jungle of potholes in Palermo: damages and accidents make every meter a risk.

Last Updated: March 19, 2024

La giungla delle buche a Palermo, tra danni e incidenti: «Così ogni metro è un rischio»

Damage economic and daily risk. The holey streets of Palermo continue to claim victims. Cars, pedestrians, and motorcyclists are in a daily battle against the potholes that litter the city’s streets. Everyone is at risk and the dangers are constantly increasing. “When I come home, I feel tired,” one citizen recounts. “Riding a motorcycle has become stressful: you don’t know what to look at first, whether it’s the ground, pedestrians, or other vehicles, every meter is a risk.” Wherever you go, there is at least one repercussion, which sometimes turns into economic damage.

“We have spent about three thousand euros,” complains a driver from a company that transports tourists around the city. “Often, the suspension springs of the train break because the potholes are too deep and ruin the vehicles. Passengers also complain, feeling the impact continuously. I constantly try to avoid potholes and craters.”

The pothole emergency also shakes up the world of politics, with Sabrina Figuccia, leader of the League in the City Council and president of the Third Committee, attacking the municipal administration and accusing the public works assessor Totò Orlando of hiding behind “twenty years of neglect, forgetting that for two decades he was president of the City Council when the mayor was his namesake Leoluca. Palermo – Figuccia continues – goes from one emergency to another, from waste issues to the lack of public lighting, from the chaos of nightlife and ZTL passes to the holey streets.”

And she continues: “Orlando perhaps forgets that he has passed, as if nothing had happened, from one majority to another, from being one of the closest collaborators of the former mayor Orlando, to then jump on the bandwagon of the winners in the municipal elections two years ago that saw Lagalla’s victory. In short, a typical example of chameleon-like transformation, passing from one political alignment to another, a phenomenon unfortunately increasingly frequent in our troubled city.” Meanwhile, while politics point fingers, the people of Palermo are forced to maneuver continuously, and complaints flood in. Even the disabled are victims of the potholes: in the span of a month, there have been two incidents of citizens being dislodged from their wheelchairs due to the wheels getting stuck in the potholes that also hit the sidewalks.

But the most affected by the inconvenience are the motorcyclists: “It’s terrible,” Giovanni Costanza says. “There is a risk of falling, and it is a constant strain on the back and suspension. Via Libertà, Via Imperatore Federico, and Via Crispi are now destroyed. A few days ago, I was on a motorcycle with my wife and we miraculously dodged a pothole, we almost fell and hit our heads.”