An Italian worker of about 60 was
crushed to death by a load he was unloading from a truck near
Cesena on Friday becoming the third workplace accident fatality
in one day as a shocking spate continues in Italy.
The man, an employee of a transport company based at Avellino
south of Naples, was unloading large refuse-collection bins when
one of them fell on him, local sources said.
The accident happened in the Hera plant at Pievesestina.
Earlier on Friday a39-year-old Albanian worker died in hospital
after being taken there in critical condition following an
accident in a building site in the northern city of Trento.
The man was fatally struck on the head after a ceiling collapsed
in the building he was helping restructure, local sources said.
He was rushed to Trento's Santa Chiara Hospital but died soon
afterwards.
Earlier still, after a 23-year-old worker died as scaffolding
collapsed on a building site near Sassari in Sardinia on Friday.
Italy is in the middle of a spate of workplace fatalities. Three
more fatal workplace accidents occurred in Italy on February 4
as a worker fell to his death from scaffolding near Venice, a
farmer was crushed to death by a tractor that overturned near
Mantua, and a 57-year-old worker was struck on the head by a
wind-blown roof panel at Sora near Frosinone between Rome and
Naples.
The fatalities were the latest in a shocking wave of workplace
accident deaths in Italy that saw 1,221 perish last year and
which has spurred government action.
Such deaths are a national tragedy, Justice Minister Marta
Cartabia said on October 22. She said the government had
intervened by increasing the number of inspectors and checks,
but a new law on administrative responsibility would be even
more useful in stopping the rash of fatalities.
Premier Mario Draghi said on October 17 that workplace safety
norms recently approved by the government sent the "unequivocal
signal that you cannot save (money) at the expense of workers'
lives" after the spate continued with four more deaths in one
day. "As the government, we committed ourselves to doing
everything possible to prevent these episodes happening again,"
Draghi said. "The norms are the realisation of this promise. We
are increasing the numbers of workplace inspectors, we are
stiffening sanctions, we are boosting computerization to improve
checks."
Despite this, as the deaths continued, Italy's big three
trade-union confederations, CGIL, CISL and UIL, held a major
demonstration in Rome in mid-December to demand urgent action on
health and safety to stem the tide of fatalities.
The issue has been top of public debate in Italy since the death
of the 22-year-old mother of a five-year-old boy, Luana
D'Orazio, in a textile mill accident near Prato on May 3 last
year.
Turin held a day of mourning on December 21 for three workers
who died when a large crane collapsed in the northern city the
previous weekend.
Re-elected President Sergio Mattarella said in his inaugural
address in February that such deaths must stop, while Pope
Francis has also joined the chorus against the phenomenon.
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