The railway massacre on the Andria-Corato line managed by Ferrotramviaria was caused by human error, and not by lack of investments in safety. It is the Court of Cassation, ten years after the events, that put an end to the trial for the head-on collision between two trains, which occurred on 12 July 2016, in which 23 people died and 51 others were injured. The Supreme Judges, agreeing with the second degree ruling of the Court of Appeal of Bari, confirmed the convictions of the two railway workers and the acquittals of Ferrotramviaria and two of its managers. The Court deemed inadmissible the appeal of the prosecutor who had asked to annul the acquittal sentence and to order a new trial for Ferrotramviaria (for the administrative offence), for the then CEO of the company Massimo Nitti, and for the operations director Michele Ronchi. Therefore, the indictment of the prosecutor Lignola who had defined the telephone block system which guaranteed the safety of the single alternate track route as absolutely inadequate and unsafe, considering it the cause of the head-on collision between the two convoys, was of no avail. The judges then confirmed the sentences of 6 years and 3 months for the Andria station master, Vito Piccarreta, and 6 years and 9 months for the train conductor Nicola Lorizzo.
The safety of the 'telephone block' was discussed at length in all three levels of judgement: the prosecution always considered it insecure and illegal, the defense adequate to safety standards and compliant with the legislation in force. This is a system whereby station masters exchange dispatches to authorize the departure of trains to the next station. Thus it was that from the Andria station (from Piccarreta) - according to the accusation - the green light was given at 10.45 for the departure of the Et1016 from the Corato station and, without waiting for the arrival of this convoy at the Andria station, the Et1021 was made to leave at 11.00 towards Corato (on which the train conductor Lorizzo was located). The high-speed impact between the two convoys was inevitable and occurred at high speed at 11:05. After the massacre, traffic on the route was blocked and only resumed on 3 April 2023. There are now two tracks and they are equipped with modern automated safety systems.
"The decision of the Court of Cassation confirms that Ferrotramviaria, its representatives and its managers are not responsible for the railway disaster. We can only be satisfied", point out Ferrotramviaria's lawyers, Michele Laforgia and Tullio Bertolino. The sentence - adds the president of Ferrotramviaria, Giuseppe Pavoncelli - "puts an end to the long judicial process", but "after 10 years the great pain remains for the victims of a tragedy which has profoundly affected the lives of all the people involved, their families and the entire community" and which for Ferrotramviaria "continues to represent an irreparable wound". For Andrea Di Comite, lawyer for Nitti and Ronchi, "the Court of Cassation expressed itself unequivocally" and "the acquittal sentences, which now become final, have shed full clarity on the responsibilities". Last July 12, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the massacre, the Head of State, Sergio Mattarella, was in Andria for a ceremony during which he met and brought comfort to the relatives of the victims. "What happened is unimaginable", said the president to the governor of Puglia, Antonio Decaro, and to the mayor of Andria, Giovanna Bruno, to whom he expressed "solidarity and closeness".
