Driver crashes through historic bridge
by Caroline Prosser (staff) | Friday, October 16th, 2009
View from the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II (ewan-m/Flickr)
An elderly driver caused a wave of panic at one of Rome’s historic landmarks after his vehicle crashed through the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II, injuring two pedestrians, and reaching a stop over the bridge’s precipice.
The driver of the vehicle, a sturdy Saab 9-5, was an 84-year old man driving towards the Vatican yesterday afternoon when he lost control at around 14.00. The likely cause of the incident, say investigators, was not a mechanical fault but an attack of illness. The driver was immediately taken to hospital in a serious condition and is thought to have suffered a cardiac arrest.
The two injured pedestrians were a girl and a forty-year old woman who suffered light shock and concussion.
The bridge is one of the most visited in Rome - typically full of tourists walking to St. Peter’s - but thanks to the hour of day, the bridge was deserted. The City Fire Brigade and cultural technicians worked late into the evening to gather parts of the bridge that had fallen into the river. The damage caused by the incident is estimated by Rome’s culture chief as “at least €50,000″.
