Italy's Genoa Bridge collapse trial is nearing its first verdict eight years after the incident.

Andrea Cerulli was driving his car to work in the port of Voltri on the western edge of Genoa when the Morandi Motorway Bridge collapsed under him.

He was one of 43 people who died in the worst infrastructure disaster in Italy in years.

Cesare Cerulli, son of Cerulli, has spent the last eight years completing high school. He also passed his final exams, and will be starting university in the fall. When his father died, he was only 10 years old. He is now an adults.

Cesare, along with dozens of relatives of victims, will return on July 16 to Genoa's courtroom to hear the first instance verdict of the case over the collapse. This follows 284 hearings over a period of almost four years.

The case is both a'search for accountability and a symbol for the slow pace in which justice is delivered in the complex Italian criminal process.

COLLAPSE AT THE END OF A NATIONAL HOLIDAY In Italy, the collapse of an motorway bridge at the end of a holiday on the eve was a shock and sparked years of investigation into the management of aging infrastructure.

The accident sparked a dispute that led to the sale of Atlantia's controlling interest in the motorway operator Autostrade per l'Italia. On trial are 57 defendants including former managers and executives of Autostrade, Atlantia as well as engineers from Spea's maintenance subsidiary and former officials in the transport ministry. All defendants have denied any wrongdoing. Genoa prosecutors requested prison sentences of up to 18-1/2 year for the most serious charges. Many lesser charges such as the forgery of documents are already barred by time.

Families of victims have endured a long wait.

Cesare said, "I was building sandcastles on the Calabria beach with my friends that morning."

His mother only told him about his father's death after his return to Genoa.

He said, "I never got to say goodbye."

He says that despite approaching adulthood, revenge thoughts have never entered his mind.

He said, "It's right that justice be done for me, everyone, and our country."

What went wrong?

The trial revolves around the question of what caused the collapse of the bridge.

The prosecution claims that the collapse was caused by years of poor maintenance, ignored warnings and delayed safety works. They claim that important work had been postponed, while profits were generated and distributed.

Defense lawyers reject this theory. Defence lawyers reject that theory.

Over almost four years of proceedings, the opposing viewpoints have been heard. The trial began in July 2022, and involved extensive testimony and technical evidence.

Slow Pace of Case

Francesco Pinto said the length of the case reflected the complexity of the evidence as well as broader issues within Italy's penal justice system. Pinto said that the trial was a "symptom" of the structural crisis in criminal proceedings in Italy. He added that the appeals trial would take at least 18 months and the final verdict of the Supreme Court of Italy, another year.

Giovanni Paolo Accinni is a lawyer representing?former Atlantia Chief Executive Giovanni Castellucci. He offered a different interpretation.

Accinni claimed that the delays were largely due to the decision of the prosecutors to carry out extensive technical pre-trial examinations into the causes of the collapse. The defence argued that much of this work had to be repeated during the trial, which lengthened proceedings.

Legal arguments are less important to relatives than getting a clear answer from the court.

Egle Possetti is the spokesperson of a committee that represents victims' families. She said: "If responsibility is not clearly defined, we as a nation have a serious issue." (Reporting and editing by Keith Weir, Emilio Parodi)

(source: Reuters)