Vincenzo Figliolia, the mayor of Pozzuoli where many of the victims of the coach crash came from, cries as he leaves a gym where all the bodies were collected to be identified
in Monteforte Irpino, near Avellino. RIGHT: The crashed bus is seen at the bottom half of the
picture while in the upper half are the bodies of the victims lined up after they were
extricated from the wreckage.


AFP/Avellino, Italy

A bus carrying pilgrims plunged off a motorway flyover in southern Italy, killing at least 38 people in the worst such accident in western Europe in the last decade.
Local prosecutors launched an investigation yesterday into possible manslaughter over Sunday evening’s accident near the town of Avellino on the main highway between Naples and Bari.
Relatives and friends gathered at a nearby school where the bodies of their loved ones were laid out in the gymnasium, ahead of funerals to be held today.
Rescuers have cleared the last of the wreckage from a wooded area off the road, where a row of beige seats patterned with blue swirls had lain, streaked with blood.
Passengers’ belongings, including a hat, shoes, and a child’s teddy bear littered the ground.
The coach, carrying 48 people including children, rammed several cars on a busy dual carriageway before it plunged off a viaduct through a crash barrier and down a slope about 50km from Naples in an area described as an accident black spot.
President Giorgio Napolitano described the accident as “an unacceptable tragedy” and called for improved road safety standards.
Police said that 38 people had died, including the driver, although Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi had put the number of dead at 39.
Another 10 bus passengers were injured, along with another nine people in cars hit by the coach before it careered of the road.
The group was returning from a pilgrimage to Pietrelcina in the Campania region of southern Italy, the birthplace of Padre Pio, an Italian priest canonised in 2002 and revered in the country’s south.
Earlier, the bodies of many of the dead had been laid out under white sheets, while a small wooden cross was left by a wellwisher, propped up near a bunch of roses by the wreckage.
Relatives and friends comforted each other outside the morgue in the nearby town of Monteforte Irpino as they heard the fate of their loved ones.
The accident was the deadliest in western Europe in a decade and the worst since an October 2010 incident in Ukraine when 45 people died.
Prime Minister Enrico Letta, on a visit to Athens, said that it was a “very sad time” for Italy and observed a minute’s silence in honour of the victims before addressing a conference in the Greek capital.
“This tragedy has profoundly moved our country ... it is an open wound,” he said. “I am grieving for and express my profound sorrow to the families of the victims.”
Italian news agency Ansa said that the manslaughter probe would look into the possible role of the driver, as well as the state of the coach and the crash barrier on the highway.
Ansa said that the driver’s body would be examined for the possible presence of alcohol or drugs while traffic police have seized the vehicle documents from the coach operator Mondotravel.
Rescue workers said they had pulled 33 bodies from the wreckage and found three more thrown from the vehicle as it plunged 30m down a slope.
Another two died in hospital of their injuries.
Photographers at the scene said about a dozen wrecked cars littered the highway.
“Looking down from the overpass, the scene of the tragedy: some 30 bodies covered by white sheets, lined up along the roadside,” said Cesare Abbate of Ansa news agency.
One survivor, quoted by his uncle who met him in hospital, reported hearing a tyre exploding and that the driver had been unable to control the vehicle.
The Naples-Bari highway has been closed to traffic, the police said.
Funerals for the Italians will take place in the town of Pozzuoli where many of the victims lived.
A party to celebrate the unveiling of the Naples football squad was cancelled out of respect for the victims, and a minute’s silence was to be observed before the team’s friendly against Turkish team Galatasaray in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The accident came just days after a train crash in Spain on Wednesday which killed 79 people, the deadliest rail disaster in the country in decades (see report on page 23).

Some of the worst European coach accidents in past decade

The coach accident that killed at least 38 people near the Italian city of Naples on Sunday was the second worst such disaster in Europe in the past decade. Here are some of the deadliest accidents since 2003.

* March 13, 2012, Switzerland: Twenty-eight people, including 22 children, die in a crash in Sierre, southern Switzerland, as they return to Belgium from a skiing holiday.

* December 21, 2011, Turkey: Twenty-five people, mainly students, are killed when a truck loaded with bricks collides with a small bus near the village of Salat in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.

* October 12, 2010, Ukraine: Forty-five people are killed when a bus packed with rush-hour commuters crashes into a train at a level crossing near the village of Marhanets in central Ukraine after jumping a red light.

* July 24, 2009, Russia: Twenty-five people are killed in a collision between a fuel truck and a bus on the Rostov-Krasnodar motorway in the southwest of the country.

* March 25, 2009, Russia: As many as 25 people are killed when a bus and a truck collide in the central Vladimir region.

* November 4, 2008, Germany: Twenty people, mainly senior citizens, are killed when a bus bursts into flames on a motorway near the northern city of Hanover. The blaze is reportedly sparked by someone smoking in the toilet.

* July 22, 2007, France: Twenty-six people are killed when a coach carrying Polish pilgrims skids out of control and plunges into a ravine near the Alpine town of Vizille.

* July 30, 2004, Turkey: Twenty-six people die when a coach and two trucks collide near the eastern town of Tercan.

* March 19, 2004, Finland: Twenty-four people die, mainly adolescents, in a collision between a coach and a truck near Aeaenekoski, southern Finland.

* June 7, 2003, Turkey: Twenty-seven people die when a coach slams into a wall at the entrance of a tunnel near the eastern city of Erzincan.
* May 17, 2003, France: Twenty-eight people are killed when a German tour bus overturns on a motorway in heavy rain north of Lyon.

* April 13, 2003, Greece: Twenty-one schoolchildren are killed when a coach and a truck collide in the north.