Italy investigates negligence after avalanche
December 31, 2019
Italian prosecutors on Tuesday announced that five people had been deemed potential suspects in the deaths of a German mother from Thuringia, her 7-year-old daughter and another 7-year-old German girl from North Rhine-Westphalia, reported Italy's ANSA news agency.
The German mother and two girls were buried under an avalanche over the weekend in the Italian Dolomites.
The mother and the girl from North Rhine-Westphalia died on the mountain while the mother's daughter succumbed to injuries while en route to a treatment center in Trento.
Prosecutors have questioned how the avalanche was able to reach an area authorized for ski runs. Authorities commissioned an avalanche expert to reconstruct the avalanche in a bid to gauge the potential for criminal culpability.
It is unclear whether the slope operator had misjudged the conditions for an avalanche or whether a skier had triggered the barrage of snow. The slope operator and a skier were among the potential suspects targeted by the investigation.
The warning level was 3 out of 5, which is considered "considerable" danger of avalanche.
ls/aw (dpa, AFP)