Stresa-Mottarone cable car, the emergency brake did not work causing the cabin to fall

by time news

In addition to the breakage of the cable, the investigation by the Verbania Public Prosecutor’s Office will have to establish why the emergency brake of the car crashed by the Stresa-Mottarone cable car. An accident that led to the death of 14 people, including two children, on Sunday afternoon. “These are all suppositions, but I think there was a double problem – says the provincial head of the Alpine Rescue, Matteo Gasparini -: the breakage of the cable and the failure of the emergency brake”.

The emergency brake of the Stresa-Mottarone cable car

Failure brake activation, Gasparini explains, “after breaking the cable, the cabin picked up speed, starting to descend, thus ending up catapulted out of the support cables”. The emergency call was launched, around 12.15, by a person who was in the area and who witnessed the fall of the cable car cabin. Fall occurred a hundred meters downstream of the station that rises on the top of Mottarone, at 1492 meters above sea level.

Breaking the cable

The tow rope of the Stresa-Mottarone cable car sliced. That is why she broke down and crashed. That cable it should have worked for at least another 8 years, until 2029. Not only that, the other big question is why the system that stops the vehicle in case of failure has not been activated. The so-called safety lock. To shed light on the reasons that led to the rupture of the pulling cable of the Stresa-Mottarone cable car and the failure of the safety systems to come into operation, several expert reports will be needed. It will take a few months.

Stresa Mottarone cable car: the sheared hauling cable

To point out the question of rope the carabinieri were the first. “There’s a sheared cable, the others are intact, but the technical issues are up to others ”. So said the lieutenant the colonel Giorgio Santacroce, commander of the operative unit of the Carabinieri of Verbania. “At the moment there are no maintenance problems – he adds – but we will make all possible checks”. According to the first reconstruction, “the load-bearing cable broke off at the height of the last pillar – he explains – and, although there should be devices of safety, the gondola lift broke off ”. A flight of about fifteen meters, after which “the cable car rolled downstream, finishing the race against the trees”.

The other cables, on the other hand, are not damaged. “For health reasons (linked to anti-Covid measures, ed) – concludes Colonel Santacroce – fewer people traveled”, otherwise the death toll could have been even more serious.

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