A car crashed into a group of young German tourists when they crossed a road in northern Italy on Sunday, killing six people and injuring 11 others, four of which are seriously injured, Italian officials stated.
The driver, a 27-year-old man from the region, revealed a blood-alcohol level almost four times Italy’s legal limit, the prosecutor’s office in Bolzano has noted. An individual, identified by the police from his initials, SL, was detained on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter.
The victims comprised of youths, aged 20 to 25, who had booked a five-day holiday through a travel agency. Most were German. Officials stated one of the injured was Italian.
The vacationers were getting back from a night out at a pub and were hit when they were crossing a state road to reach their lodgings, stated Arno Kompatscher, the region’s president. They happened to use a public shuttle service established in the area so that young people could go out and have fun but not drink and drive, he stated.
“These young people wanted to have a good time — and from one second to the next were ripped from life or badly injured,” stated Armin Laschet, the governor of North-Rhine Westphalia, the German state where many of the victims came from, said on Twitter.
The crash took place around 1:15 a.m. Sunday in the mountain village of Lutago, which is in the municipality of Valle Aurina located in the South Tyrol region, close to the Austrian border, according to a representative for the local military police. The Bolzano prosecutor’s office stated it seemed that the driver had been surpassing the speed limit of 50 kilometers per hour, or about 31 miles per hour.
The accident site is close to a volunteer firefighter station, Kompatscher stated, “so rescue teams reached the scene in just a few minutes.” He stated about 160 rescuers had participated.
Six people died on the scene, according to Lt. Col. Alessandro Coassin of the Bolzano carabinieri. He said four others had been shifted to hospitals in “very serious” condition. Two others were hospitalized in Innsbruck, Austria, and one each to hospitals located in Bolzano and Brunico, Italy.
Seven others were being treated at different hospitals for multiple injuries. “There were dozens of ambulances and rescue vehicles, including helicopters, on the scene,” he stated.
The Bolzano’s prosecutors office stated that initial investigations had not clarified where the first pedestrian was hit, but that “immediately after the collision, the driver lost control of the car and crashed into debris on the right side of the road.” He was hospitalized for other tests and to allow him to access to a psychologist, Kompatscher stated. The lieutenant stated the man’s blood-alcohol level was clearly “higher than the legal limit”.
Kompatscher stated that the victims had been identified and that their families had been informed. A hotline was set up to give details to the relatives.
“Some relatives have already arrived, and others are expected to come by nightfall,” he stated.
In 2017, the most recent year available, almost 175,000 road accidents took place in Italy, in which there were 3,378 deaths, and 246,750 injuries, according to the Italian statistics agency ISTAT.
