15 October 2023

Venice mayor orders halt to buses run by firm after second crash

15 October 2023

The mayor of Venice has ordered an immediate stop to electric buses operated by La Linea company after one of their vehicles crashed in the Italian city, injuring 15 people.

The accident was the company’s second this month, following a collision on October 3 in which 21 people were killed.

The bus crashed into a building in Mestre, a Venice borough, on Saturday evening. The injured were not in a serious condition, Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in a statement.

On October 3, an all-electric bus — carrying foreign tourists — fell from an elevated street in Mestre en route to a camp site near Marghera. The bus fell a few metres before crashing close to railway tracks, where it caught fire.

The Italian driver and 20 foreign tourists were killed.

City officials suggested the driver, Alberto Rizzotto, who had an unblemished record, may have suffered a heart attack. But preliminary post-mortem examination results did not support this idea, the local daily Corriere del Veneto newspaper reported.

The investigation was ongoing.

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