Italy launches an investigation after a bus with tourists plunges from a Venice overpass, killing 21
Italy has launched an investigation after a fully electric-powered bus with foreign tourists veered off a busy overpass on the Venetian mainland during rush hour
VENICE, Italy — Residents of the Italian city of Venice stopped in dismay Wednesday to pay respects to the 21 foreign tourists who were killed when an all-electric shuttle bus crashed through an overpass guardrail and fence, plunging more than 10 meters (30 feet) to the ground.
It’s a road that Venetians had traveled many times and considered safe, but they now stopped to inspect the aging guardrail and rusted fence.
The bus, which was just a year old, crashed to the ground and landed upside down on Tuesday night. The 40-year-old driver was among those killed and 15 people were injured.
The driver, who had an untarnished record, had just started his shift shuttling tourists from Piazzale Roma, at the edge of Venice’s famed canals, to a four-star campground on the mainland offering bargain accommodation.
A video shows the city-owned bus disappear from the frame, as another larger bus traveling behind it continued along the overpass. Prosecutors said the shuttle bus scraped against the guardrail for at least 50 meters (more than 150 feet) before its fiery crash to a surface road opposite the Venetian borough of Mestre’s train station.
The guardrail was bent to the pavement, the fence was ripped open and the front of the bus was completely crushed.
“Inexplicable,’’ said Mayor Luigi Brugnaro, who added that he had driven on the overpass hundreds of times. Regional Gov. Luca Zaia said the circumstances suggested the driver may have suddenly become ill.
Investigators hope that video from the scene will reveal the reason for the crash.
Five Ukrainians and one German
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