On the morning of 14 August 2018, Claudia Possetti, 47, was driving with her new husband Andrea and their two children, aged 12 and 16, to the Italian Riviera for a holiday when a large section of the Morandi motorway bridge in Genoa collapsed beneath them. Their car plunged onto the railway tracks below, and all four were among 43 people killed in one of Italy's worst infrastructure disasters in decades.

Nearly eight years later, on Thursday, 15 July 2026, Claudia's sister, Egle Possetti, along with other relatives and the children's father, who survived the collapse, gathered in a Genoa courtroom to hear the first-instance verdict in the trial over the bridge collapse.

Families of the victims expressed a mix of anxiety and hope. One relative said, "After so many years, so many hearings, we may be able to see some light. It would be so important for us to know if someone's been held accountable." Another added, "For so many years, lawyers told us that what happened was no-one's fault, that it was just an accident. But this decision could be symbolically so important. Finding who is responsible could give us some sort of peace and a sense of justice."

Representatives of the current company responsible for the bridge stated that it operates under different ownership and management than at the time of the collapse and acknowledged a moral duty to make amends, even if it cannot undo the families' pain.

A new viaduct, designed by Genoa-born architect Renzo Piano, was opened in August 2020, just 18 months after the disaster.

Sources