“Oute adikein oute antadikein” (Οὔτε ἀδικεῖνοὔτε ἀνταδικεῖν) is a famous principle of Socratic morality meaning: “Do not commit injustice, nor repay injustice.” It is appropriate to remind the judges who, after 17 years of legal persecution, have definitively sentenced engineer Mauro Moretti, former CEO of Ferrovie dello Stato and Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, to 5 years in prison; he surrendered to justice at the Orvieto penitentiary a few hours after the Cassation Court’s verdict.
Together with Moretti, the other defendants from the managerial line considered responsible for the railway massacre at the Viareggio Station were convicted, where 32 people lost their lives: 11 immediately due to burns or building collapses; another 20 died in hospital in the weeks and months following, while 2 elderly people, Angela Monelli and Italo Ferrari, died of heart attacks, probably due to the shock caused by the explosion; more than a hundred were injured. All were charged with negligent railway disaster, and Moretti also faced charges of arson.
Moretti commented on the sentence with dignity, pointing out the serious precedent established regarding managerial responsibility. The facts are well known and date back to June 29, 2009. On the evening of that cursed day, a freight train (consisting of 14 wagons coming from Poland and Germany, supplied with regular documents on the inspections carried out) derailed shortly after passing the Viareggio station in a populated area of the city. It was carrying LPG — liquefied petroleum gas — which leaked from one of the train’s tank cars causing a fire and the explosion of three buildings adjacent to the station. Among the causes identified for the accident was the failure of an axle of the wagon that left the tracks (indicating a deficiency in inspections that must be repeated frequently before the damage widens and becomes dangerous).
In the motivations of the 2022 sentence, the magistrates established that Moretti’s responsibility in the massacre was determined by the lack of traceability and inadequate inspections on freight wagons leased from German companies. The victims’ relatives and the citizens of Viareggio have fought for years — with important and determined initiatives — in the name of the right to obtain justice and welcomed the final sentence even if it downscales the first instance ruling. One might almost say that for them, gathered in an association, even a “symbolic” conviction was enough (five years is not a penalty adequate to the seriousness of the charges).
As understandable as the position of the victims’ relatives is, the question also applies to them: can any sentence render “justice”? Certainly, they did not invent Moretti’s guilt: it was established and handed over to the citizens of Viareggio delle Corti, who are entitled to judge. The victims cannot exonerate him, but the doubt remains. Even though we are in a historical phase where perception often prevails over reality, the writer remains stunned by a sentence that abuses the ancient concept of objective responsibility, even attributing it to a person who was not even present at the events (criminal responsibility is always personal). Even assuming, paradoxically, that a “CEO” had the task of directly controlling the railway line, that night Moretti had no possibility to remedy the wear of an axle of a wagon — moreover coming from abroad — derailed from the tracks just after leaving the Viareggio station. Justice is not served by applying the law of retaliation.
Moreover, in the sentences issued at various levels of judgment, there is evident leniency inversely proportional towards those who — like the station staff for their role and being on duty on site — had greater possibilities to carry out any inspections on the death wagons, compared to the actual availability of managers who, at the hours of the tragedy, were sleeping in their beds hundreds of kilometers away. A massacre of innocents is not remedied by decimating — that is what happened — the command line of Ferrovie dello Stato. Respect and solidarity are needed for those who have suffered and continue to suffer the consequences of that tragedy.
It is human to understand their desire that someone pays for everyone and that it is an important person with a flowing scalp to display ut iustitia fit. Obtaining a conviction anyway (more appreciated and shared if the penalty is greater) for defendants clearly not responsible means killing again those poor victims surprised at night by the explosion and flames at the Viareggio station.
