66-year-old woman killed by a rock on the way to her mother's funeral

A 66-year-old woman died when she was hit by a boulder while she was going by car to her mother's funeral in a hamlet of Cascia (Perugia). The car she was traveling in, driven by her husband, was hit by a boulder that detached from the wall overlooking the regional road 521 that connects Morro Reatino to Leonessa, in the province of Rieti. Another 7 people were injured and transported by Ares 118 to Rieti hospital, none in serious condition. The boulder, weighing around twenty kilograms, according to what the rescuers reported, suddenly detached itself from a rocky wall overlooking one side of the road and, rolling downhill towards the road, hit the window of the small car with the 66-year-old on board, who was sitting next to her husband. The two were reaching, together with other family members who were part of the funeral procession, Coronella, a hamlet in the municipality of Cascia (Perugia), to give a final farewell and burial to the woman's elderly mother.

The causes of the landslide are being investigated

The operators of a crew from the Rieti Fire Brigade and Ares 118 provided first aid, as well as the Carabinieri from Leonessa and the stations near the area where the accident occurred, who carried out investigations to clarify the exact dynamics of the accident and any responsibilities. The cause of the landslide remains to be clarified, perhaps linked to the rainfall of recent days. The stretch of regional road that from the town of Morro Reatino reaches Leonessa and then, after about twenty kilometres, the center of Cascia, crosses, in various points, very narrow gorges and had already been affected by landslides and mudslides in the past, which had required the installation of networks and containment walls. The funeral of the mother of the woman who died in the accident was however celebrated in the afternoon in the small town of Coronella, while the body of the 66-year-old is now at the disposal of the judicial authorities as ordered by the magistrate on duty of the Rieti prosecutor's office.