The investigations into the cause of the cable car accident in Stresa on Lake Maggiore with 14 deaths focus on the emergency braking system.

It had failed during the Pentecost Sunday disaster or was possibly deactivated.

The responsible public prosecutor's office in Verbania in the Piedmont region has started investigations against unknown persons on suspicion of negligent homicide.

Doctors at Turin Regina Margherita Hospital announced on Tuesday lunchtime that the condition of the seriously injured five-year-old boy, who was the only one to survive the accident, had continued to improve.

Matthias Rüb

Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.

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    The investigators based their investigations into the cause of the accident on Tuesday, in addition to interviewing witnesses, and above all on the recordings of the surveillance cameras at the Mottarone mountain station. As reported by Italian media, the cabin, which was occupied by 15 people, was already slowing down, barely five meters from the entrance to the mountain station. A loud bang could be heard on the video recordings, which apparently came from the break in the pulling rope. The employee of the cable car company, who wanted to open the barriers to the exit and boarding area, visibly winced and backed away. Then the gondola moved downhill at increasing speed and quickly disappeared from the cameras' field of view.After about 150 meters of furious ride, the gondola, which was obviously swinging heavily, crashed unbraked onto a pillar of the cable car and jumped out of the suspension cable. Thereupon the gondola fell to the ground, overturned several times and finally hit a tree.

    The investigators, which also include experts from the Ministry of Transport, want to find out why the emergency brake system did not work in the accident cabin, while the cabin driving downhill in regular oncoming traffic stopped about 150 meters in front of the middle station of the cable car as planned.

    According to hypotheses put forward, the brakes did not apply due to a technical error or were possibly deactivated by a specially installed device.

    Accordingly, human error could be the cause of the misfortune.

    The five-year revision would have been due in August

    The Leitner company from Sterzing in South Tyrol, which builds and operates cable cars all over the world, published the list of maintenance work on the system in Stresa since November on Tuesday. Leitner has been responsible for the regular maintenance of the system since the modernization of the railway, which went into operation in 1970, was completed in 2016. After that, Leitner had carried out six maintenance work in Stresa since November, all of which were carried out in accordance with the statutory provisions. The local cable car operator Ferrovie del Mottarone is responsible for the daily checks. The five-year revision took place from the end of March to the beginning of April, which according to plan would not have been due until August 2021. The annual magnetic induction control of the pull ropes and all ropes of the system took place in November 2020:No damage was found to the ropes. The hydraulic brake system was last serviced and checked at the beginning of May. The media reported that there were far closer business relationships between the cable car operator and the Leitner maintenance company than is usual in the industry through mutual capital investments. According to press reports, the cable car operated by the private company on behalf of the municipality of Stresa was highly profitable.According to press reports, the cable car operated by the private company on behalf of the municipality of Stresa was highly profitable.According to press reports, the cable car operated by the private company on behalf of the municipality of Stresa was highly profitable.

    In Turin, the five-year-old boy's doctors reported that the imaging tests had shown no evidence of permanent injuries to the brain or the central nervous system. The boy from Israel was supposed to be brought out of the artificial coma on Tuesday afternoon. In view of the successful five-hour operation on several leg fractures, the doctors were cautiously optimistic about the boy's chances of recovery. In the accident on Sunday, the boy's parents, his maternal grandparents and his two-year-old brother were all killed.