the report on the handbike accident of June 19, 2020

The truth about that damn June 19 is a little closer. The handbike you traveled on Alex Zanardi Three months ago, while traveling along provincial road 146 between Pienza and San Quirico d’Orcia, in the province of Siena, it would have been running regularly from a mechanical point of view. And the road surface would not have been ‘damaged’, that is, defective.

These are just some of the elements that emerge from the technical advice provided by the Siena Public Ministry on the traffic accident in which the Paralympic athlete, that day involved in the “Obiettivo Tricolore” charity relay, was seriously injured after skidding and collide with an oncoming truck. But let’s proceed in order.

The report on the Zanardi accident

What did they discover? The engineer Dario Vangi, professor of mechanical design and machine construction in the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Florence, one of the main specialists in traffic accidents, presented yesterday morning the report requested by the prosecutor Salvatore within the time allowed (60 days). Vitello and by the prosecutor Serena Menicucci. Consulting operations began on July 16, when Vangi carried out an inspection of the accident area, also to assess the condition of the road. Then Vangi, who was already an expert in the investigation into the death of Franco Ballerini during a rally in 2010 and in the investigation into the railway massacre in Viareggio, went on to examine the technical faults or construction defects of the hand-bike of Zanardi. The analyzes would have ruled out a malfunction of the vehicle.

Due to the incident involving the ex-driver, the Public Ministry has opened a file for very serious injuries due to a traffic accident, registering the truck driver Marco Ciacci in the list of suspects (“as an act of due”, the magistrates specified several times). , 44 years old, carrier, resident in Castelnuovo Berardenga (Si). The reports containing the observations of the partisan consultants are attached to Vangi’s advice presented to the Public Ministry: three in total, including that of engineer Mattia Strangi, professor of traffic accident reconstruction at the University of Bologna, appointed by the lawyer Massimiliano Arcioni, defender of the suspect, and that of the offended party, who is from the Zanardi family, who named the engineer Giorgio Cavallin from Padua. Vangi’s technical advice and related technical reconstructions of the defendant and injured party’s defense will now be examined by Prosecutor Vitello and Prosecutor Menicucci: at the end of the study, the magistrates will assess whether further investigations will be necessary to investigate any remaining issues. uncertain in the dynamics of the fact, or define the criminal process with the request for dismissal or with the request for indictment for the only suspect.

As Laura Montanari explains today in Republic, the report came a day ahead of its time. And it says things very clearly.

Three, therefore, the reports that analyzed the dynamics of the accident. As has been leaked, the reconstruction also confirms that Zanardi was wearing a helmet and that it was well fastened, but that it broke into two parts on impact. Regarding the speed of the vehicles, there would be no infractions of the limits. Ultimately, the accident would have been caused by the driving behavior and not by a breakdown.

How is Alex Zanardi after the accident of June 19

After the collision with the heavy vehicle, Zanardi was transported by helicopter to the Scotte University Polyclinic in Siena where he underwent surgery and at the end of the neurosurgery he was sedated and put into a pharmacological coma. His condition was described as “very serious” by doctors. On June 29, he underwent brain surgery for the second time. Also at the Siena hospital he underwent a third surgery, this time for maxillofacial reconstruction for a face disfigured by the impact with the truck. On July 16, the Sienese doctors began, according to the family, the progressive reduction of Alex Zanardi’s pharmacological sedation, which a few days later led to his emergence from an induced coma, to begin a process of neurorehabilitation. On July 21, the former Formula 1 driver was discharged from the Siena polyclinic and transferred to Villa Beretta, in the Lecco area, a specialized center for recovery and functional rehabilitation. However, a few days later, on July 24, Zanardi was transferred to the San Raffaele hospital in Milan due to “unstable conditions” and admitted to intensive neurosurgery. On July 27, he underwent the fourth surgery, “a delicate neurosurgical procedure performed by Professor Pietro Mortini, director of the Neurosurgery Unit, for the treatment of some late complications from primary head trauma.”

On August 19, after a period during which he was subjected to intensive care, Zanardi “responded with important clinical improvements,” as announced by the San Raffaele hospital in Milan, reporting that “for this reason” the sample is “assisted and treated with semi-intensive care in the Neuroreanimation Unit, directed by Professor Luigi Beretta “. Come on Alex, we are all with you.

Zanardi, the doctor who rescued him on the street, speaks: “This phase could last a year”