Police have arrested three people over the cable car disaster that killed 14 people in northern Italy, saying an investigation showed a clamp placed on the brake as a patchwork repair prevented the brake from engaging after the lead cable snapped. The clamp was put on several weeks ago as a temporary fix to prevent further service interruptions in the cable car line taking sightseers to the top of the Mottarone peak overlooking Lake Maggiore. Expand Close The wreckage of the cable car (Italian Police/AP) / FacebookTwitterEmailWhatsapp The wreckage of the cable car (Italian Police/AP)Fourteen people were killed, and the only survivor, a five-year-old boy, remains in hospital. “In this way, the brake couldn’t function, and this brought about the fact that when the cable broke, the cabin fell backwards.”Sky and the LaPresse news agency identified the three people arrested as the owner of the cable car service, the company’s director and the service chief. Ms Bossi told reporters that investigators believed the stop-gap measure was used with “the full knowledge” of the cable car company owners.

Source: Irish Independent May 26, 2021 08:47 UTC