An Italian train station manager admitted partial responsibility for a head-on collision that killed 23 people but insisted he was not the only one to blame, as investigators today probed possible institutional negligence or corruption.
The crash happened Tuesday on a single-track stretch of railway run by station managers who communicate directly with train drivers, a system Italian authorities described as outdated and "risky".
"I'm the one who sent the train on its way," Vito Piccarreta, head of Andria station in the Puglia region in southern Italy, told journalists.
"There was some confusion, the trains were late. But I'm not the only one at fault."
Hundreds of mourners held a silent, candle-lit procession through the town to the station late yesterday, after relatives of victims spent the day at a hospital morgue, providing identification details to help doctors put names to the mangled dead.
One of the four-carriage trains was supposed to have waited at Andria to let another through from nearby Corato town.
An extra train had been slotted into the timetable at the last minute because of delays on the line Tuesday, which may have resulted in the confusion for the Andria station chief, according to Italian media reports.
The delays worsened after one of the trains coming north from Corato had to turn back because it had forgotten to let a disabled girl off at the previous stop, the Repubblica daily said.
Piccarreta is under investigation for having lifted the green "Go" signalling sign. But the Corato station master, Alessio Porcelli, is also in the spotlight because Piccarreta reportedly warned him the train was on its way.
Trade unions had filed complaints saying the recent increase in traffic on the line with no extra staff was a safety risk, the Repubblica paper said.
A slight bend in the track reduced visibility, leaving the trains - which were travelling at over 100 kilometres an hour - with fewer than 50 metres in which to brake to a stop, when they needed 250 metres, the Corriere della Sera said.
But assistant prosecutor Francesco Giannella insisted the station managers would not become scapegoats.
"We will absolutely not stop at the first version of the truth. Human error is only the starting point of this drama," he said. A call for tenders to modernise the security system and lay a second track had been scheduled to open later this month after a two-year delay.
