1 of 3 | A large section of the Morandi viaduct upon which the A10 motorway runs collapsed in Genoa, Italy, in 2018. The CEO of the company that runs Italy's roadways was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in prison. File Photo by Luca Zennaro/EPA
July 16 (UPI) -- The former CEO of the management company that runs Italy's roadways was sentenced to 12 years in prison for a 2018 bridge collapse that killed 43 people.
Giovanni Castellucci, former CEO of Autostrade per l'Italia, was running the company when the Morandi Bridge in Genoa suddenly collapsed during a rainstorm, and 43 people in their vehicles fell 100 feet to their deaths.
Prosecutors had argued that maintenance of the structure had been repeatedly delayed and that warning signs were ignored. Defense attorneys blamed the disaster on a design flaw and that a specific cable was encased in concrete, the BBC reported.
The bridge in the northern Italian city was built by Riccardo Morandi in 1967.
