The episode dates back to November 2022 at Tavolucci, when the wrong product was introduced into the plant and around twenty people ended up in hospital
From San Marino information (by Antonio Fabbri) – It ended with an acquittal and a conviction the procedure relating to intoxication which occurred on November 29, 2022 at the Tavolucci swimming pool, in Borgo Maggiore. At the end of the hearing before judge Elia Zaghini, Gian Primo Giardi was acquitted of the charges due to insufficient elements to support his guilt. Corrado Barani, owner of the Barchemicals company, was instead held responsible and sentenced to six months in prison, with suspended sentence and the benefit of not being mentioned in the criminal record. Some charges of an administrative nature were declared time-barred, while another charge was absorbed into the most serious crime charged, “culpable attack on public health”. The appeal has already been announced.
The public prosecution, represented by the tax prosecutor Manuela Albani, had requested six months of prison for Giardi and eight months for Barani, holding both responsible, albeit with different roles, for the shortcomings that had contributed to the accident.
At the center of the indictment, above all, responsibilities in managing the safety of the plant. According to Albani, it was not enough to prepare procedures and rules on paper: “those who play the role of employer must also monitor their concrete application”. According to the Tax Prosecutor, the CONS, owner and manager of the swimming pool, did not set up an adequate organisation, nor formally identified a person in charge of the role of supervisor, responsible for verifying the operations and compliance with the procedures. Same shortcomings that the PF identified for the top management of the supplier company. An error – that of the driver of the truck (which he settled for at the time) which had loaded and introduced sulfuric acid into the plant instead of chlorine, which according to the tax attorney should have been avoided by being intercepted thanks to a double control system which however had not been set up.
For Albani, the PF was a combination of negligent conduct: on the one hand the error in the supply, on the other the absence of controls and adequate prevention measures. The lawyer Francesco Mazza, defender of Gian Primo Giardi, president of the San Marino Olympic Committee at the time of the events, has a different opinion. Recalling decree 92 of 2002, the lawyer underlined that the preparation and updating of the Risk Assessment Document (DVR) were reserved to the Congress of State, which for that decree was the employer in the extended public sector, and not directly attributable to the CONS. He also underlined that the contractual relationship with Barchemicals placed the skills, safety and training of the supplier in the hands of this expert company to which the Cons had entrusted itself.
The lawyers Cosimo Zaccaria and Alfredo Nicolini, defenders of Corrado Barani of Barchemicals, instead argued that the company had adopted the necessary safety measures and provided for the training of its employees, circumstances which were also documented. The defense contested the accusatory reconstruction, also highlighting some inconsistencies in the testimonies collected and asking for the acquittal of their client.
Judge Elia Zaghini, at the end of the final sentences, pronounced a sentence of acquittal for Giardi and condemnation of Barani, owner of the supplier company.
The story dating back to the morning of November 29, 2022caused considerable concern. During the delivery of chemical products for water treatment, a toxic cloud was released at the Tavolucci swimming pool which involved over twenty people, including about ten children aged three and four. Several people were taken to the emergency room and pediatric clinics; one was hospitalized as a precaution in semi-intensive care. The plant was closed to allow investigations and to make the structure safe. Fortunately there were no consequences for any of the people involved and they were taken to hospital as a precaution in the immediate aftermath of the events.
af
