Holiday-maker Killed As Walkway Collapses

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http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/paperboy.cfm?...m?id=1191972003

 

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Wed 29 Oct 2003

 

Scot killed as walkway collapses

 

JEREMY CHARLES

 

 

A SCOTTISH holidaymaker died yesterday after a moving walkway collapsed and she fell into the machinery at one of Rome’s main railway stations.

 

Marie Baldwin, 62, a retired university lecturer, was crushed to death as horrified onlookers - including a railway worker - rushed to her aid.

 

There was nothing that could be done for her, and she died instantly.

 

Officials from Italy’s railway network, RFI, immediately opened an investigation into the death, which happened near a platform on Rome’s Tiburtina station, in the east of the city.

 

Mrs Baldwin, who was originally from Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, was accompanied by her former husband, Jack Baldwin, 64, and by a friend, Brian McCrossan, from Carluke, when the incident happened.

 

They were both taken to the Umberto I hospital. Anna Rosalba Buttiglieri, A spokeswoman for the hospital, said Mr Baldwin was admitted suffering from severe shock after witnessing his wife’s fall.

 

She said: "He was very, very distressed. The whole thing happened right in front of him.

 

"When he was first brought here, he kept asking for his wife and wanting to know if she was OK," said Ms Buttiglieri, "In the end it was some officials from the British embassy in Rome who broke the news to him that she had died.

 

"He then asked to be taken to the scene and, after that, he said he didn’t want to stay at the hospital. I understand he is now with people from the embassy."

 

She said the Baldwins had been in Italy visiting friends in Terni, north of Rome.

 

Meanwhile, Vincenzo Pratico, 38, the railway worker who tried to help Mrs Baldwin - who had remarried but retained her surname and lived in York - was being treated for severe crush injuries. Doctors at the hospital said he may lose his leg.

 

Firefighters using cutting equipment freed Mr Pratico from the machinery of the walkway.

 

It emerged yesterday that the walkway, which was made by the US-based firm Otis, which also supplies the London Underground, had been subject to maintenance work.

 

A Rome police spokesman said that the investigation was concentrating on the fact that five panels from the walkway had been removed and were missing.

 

He added: "It would appear that these panels were removed during maintenance and were not put back.

 

"Whether this contributed to the accident is still being investigated, as the walkway had been moved round so that it was still usable by pedestrians.

 

"It’s possible that as a result it had been weakened, and the fact that it had been used for several hours by numerous people could have contributed to its collapse."

 

The mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, later issued a statement which said: "I express my sincere condolences, and those of the entire city, at this terrible accident.

 

"I extend my sympathy to the family of the British woman so tragically killed and to those that were injured."

 

A spokeswoman for the British Embassy in Rome said: "We have been informed of the accident and the consular section are dealing with it. Other than that, we have no other information"

 

Later, a spokesman from the Rome prosecutor’s office said a file had been opened on the incident by Roberto Staffa, an investigating magistrate.

 

"We are investigating the possibility of whether a charge of manslaughter can be brought," the spokesman said. "Signor Staffa has already given permission for a post-mortem to be carried out."

 

One female witness said: "The dead woman was in front of me when it happened. All of a sudden this hole opened up and she fell through it.

 

"I was so scared, and then panic broke out everywhere," she added. "There must have been a dozen people on it at the time.

 

"I had just got off the train from Fara Sabina [a town north of Rome] and so must the woman. I saw one man try to help the woman, but he fell through the hole as well. It was terrible. It’s a miracle I’m alive."

 

A spokesman for RFI said: "We have opened an investigation into the incident.

 

"The walkway was undergoing regular maintenance work, which is carried out several times a year.

 

"From an initial investigation, it would appear that part of the walkway came out of its guide-rail and the woman fell through this."

 

Domenico Riccio, a spokesman for Rome’s fire brigade, said: "What happened was quite unbelievable. We had to pull the woman’s body free from the machinery of the walkway, and that was not an easy operation.

 

"I would not like to say what caused the accident, as that is now subject to an official investigation."

 

Police were also examining CCTV footage of the walkway to try to discover exactly what had happened.

 

After the accident, it emerged that, just hours before it happened, several people had complained that the walkway was not working properly.

 

A railway police officer at Tiburtina station said: "We had several people complaining at about 8am - two and a half hours before the accident - that the walkway was not working properly.

 

"A patrol was dispatched, but they could find nothing seriously wrong with it."

 

 

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