Victims deemed “30% responsible” for their own death

The victims of the earthquake of April 6, 2009 in L’Aquila, in central Italy, will ultimately not all be treated the same way. An Italian court has ruled that a number of them were partly responsible for their deaths and that the compensation paid to their families should be reduced, Italian media reported on Wednesday.

The 6.3 magnitude earthquake which had devastated in the middle of the night, at 03:32, the historic center of the city, reducing it to ruins, had killed 309 people. Seized in civil proceedings by the families of 24 people who had died in one of the destroyed buildings, the judge declared that the victims had returned to bed despite two tremors which had occurred earlier during the night. This “reckless behavior” made them “30% responsible” for their own death, the judge estimated, according to the daily Il Messaggero.

Families plan to appeal

Maria Grazia Piccinini, a lawyer and mother of Ilaria Rambaldi, a 25-year-old student killed in the quake, said Tuesday’s judgment was “absurd” given that experts had downplayed the risk of a quake. murderous earth. “My daughter was reassured, like everyone else,” she told the Corriere della Seraadding that the families, who are claiming damages, would appeal.

Seven members of the Government Commission for the Prevention of Major Risks had been sentenced for not having given adequate precautionary advice to residents. The earthquake, which had devastated the medieval center of the capital of Abruzzo, had also left 1,600 injured and at least 80,000 homeless.