Italian court convicts 30 including former highway operator CEO in deadly 2018 bridge collapse

An Italian court on Thursday convicted the former CEO of Italy’s main highway operator and 29 others in the 2018 Genoa highway bridge collapse that sent vehicles plunging and killed 43 people, a disaster that exposed serious lapses in the maintenance of Italian infrastructure.

Dozens of family members of the victims packed the courtroom as Chief Judge Paolo Lepri read the verdicts against 57 defendants, including former executives and officials. Many relatives broke down in tears as the sentences were read.

The former chief executive of highway operator Autostrade per l’Italia, Giovanni Castellucci, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, the highest in the case after four years of trial and four hours of deliberations.

Also convicted were Autostrade’s former head of maintenance, Michele Donferri Mitelli, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The former CEO of the SPEA engineering company, Antonino Galatà, received five years and six months.