Overview
- The tribunal’s 340-page motivations affirm that eight RFI executives, including former CEO Maurizio Gentile, and the company were acquitted because alleged safety-management deficiencies were not proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
- Judges attribute the derailment exclusively to the breakage of a deteriorated rail joint at the so‑called point zero, a defect maintenance operators had promptly identified.
- Former Brescia maintenance chief Marco Albanesi received five years and three months for negligently underestimating the known risk and for failing to ensure the joint’s replacement proceeded.
- Prosecutors, who had sought additional convictions and an eight‑year‑four‑month sentence for Gentile tied to alleged cost‑driven policies, contend internal information exchange was inadequate and may appeal.
- The court ordered over €1 million in provisional compensation for roughly forty civil parties, jointly against Albanesi and RFI, while many other victims and families had already settled outside the trial after three deaths and widespread injuries and trauma.