Brake-tampering Video Passed To Italy Cable Car Probe

Prosecutors investigating the fatal cable car crash in northern Italy were on Wednesday examining years-old videos that could show whether or not there was long-term tampering with the emergency brakes

Rome, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jun, 2021 ) :Prosecutors investigating the fatal cable car crash in northern Italy were on Wednesday examining years-old videos that could show whether or not there was long-term tampering with the emergency brakes.

Fourteen people died on May 23 when a cable broke, causing the car in which they were travelling to crash into a mountain near Stresa, a resort in the Piedmont region on the shores of Lake Maggiore.

The victims included five members of a family of Israeli holidaymakers. A five-year-old boy from the same family, the only survivor, was seriously injured.

Employees of the cable car operator are accused of having deliberately deactivated the emergency brake with a special "fork" because of recent technical problems with the safety system, so as not to interrupt the service.

Footage filmed between 2014 and 2018 in Stresa by Michael Meier, a Swiss cable-car enthusiast who worked for years in the sector, was broadcast on Tuesday evening by the German ZDF channel, which passed it on to Italian justice officials.

The prosecutor overseeing the investigation, Olimpia Bossi, confirmed to Italian media that she had the footage but said she had not yet reviewed it.

Following the accident, Meier examined his archives, taken during several rides on the Stresa cable car.

"I noticed that you could already see these forks that the Italian media have been reporting on in the images. The forks were already being used in 2014 with people in the cabin," he told ZDF, which said the forks were clearly visible in the footage.

Meier also filmed images on June 9, 2018 documenting the presence of these emergency brake-locking forks, ZDF reported.

Popular with tourists, the cable car connects the village of Stresa to Mount Mottarone in 20 minutes, offering spectacular views of Lake Maggiore and the Alps.

In 2014, the cable car had been closed for an overhaul that lasted until August 2016, according to investigators quoted by the Agi news agency.