T wo families, an engaged couple and two workers hit by falling debris have been named among the 39 victims of the motorway bridge collapse in Italy. Roberto Robbiano, 44, his wife Ersilia Piccinino, 41, and their son Samuel, reportedly aged 7, died after the Morandi bridge gave way on Tuesday. They were due to leave for a holiday in Sardinia, local media reports. Members of a second family were named as Andrea Vittone, 49, Claudia Possetti, 48, and two children from Posetti's previous marriage, Manuele and Camilla Bellasio, aged 16 and 12. Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte called it "an immense tragedy ... inconceivable in a modern system like ours, a modern country". Investigators were today carrying out work to establish how the massive structure came crashing down / EPA Civil protection authorities confirmed 39 people died and 15 were injured. Interior minister Matteo Salvini said three children were among the dead. Rescuers and sniffer dogs are continuing to search through tonnes of concrete slabs and steel for survivors or bodies. Two Albanian men were killed in the collapse, named by authorities as Marjus Djerri and Edi Bokrina, expressing condolences and offering assistance to their families. Tragedy: the bridge was in use when it collapsed, killing at least 35 people / REUTERS Hundreds of thousands of Albanians have moved to Italy seeking better lives following the collapse of the communist regime in the tiny western Balkan country. Three French nationals were also said to have died, with local media reporting that the two young women and a man from Toulouse had travelled to Italy for a music festival. Alberto Fanfani and his fiancée Marta Danisi / Facebook Alberto Fanfani, 32, an anaesthetist from Florence, was travelling with his fiancée, Marta Danisi, 29, a nurse from Sicily, when the bridge gave way. Bruno Mancuso, the mayor of Sant’Agata di Militello, her Sicilian hometown, confirmed their death on Facebook, citing relatives. “I am shocked and saddened by the tragedy that has struck somebody from our town,” he said. “On behalf of all the community, we express our deepest condolences and solidarity with her family over this immense pain and emptiness that has hit them.” Amateur footballer Andrea Cerulli has also been named among the victims (Facebook) Amateur football player Andrea Cerulli was also named among the victims, according to friends who posted tributes on social media after finding out about his death. His football club posted a picture of their team member on Facebook, with the message: "Genoa Club Portuali Voltri is rallying around Andrea's family, our associate, our friend, our colleague, victim of Ponte Morandi's tragedy. Goodbye Andre." Luigi Matti Altadonna died in the tragedy prompting tributes from his relatives (Facebook) Luigi Matti Altadonna, 35, also died in the tragedy prompting a heartfelt statement from his uncle, the mayor of his hometown of Borghetto. He had first been listed as missing in the immediate aftermath, with his family launching a social media appeal to find him. Mayor Borghettino Giancarlo Canepa said: "The municipal administration joins the pain of Giovanni, a model citizen and an exemplary volunteer of the Civil Protection Section of Borghetto, for the loss of his dear nephew in the terrible tragedy of Genoa." A married father of four, Mr Altadonna was said to be on his way to work in a van at the time of the collapse. A view of the collapsed Morandi highway bridge in Genoa / AP Two employees of waste management company Amiu were working in the area below the bridge when it collapsed. They were undertaking a seasonal contract at the firm, covering for workers who had gone away on their summer holidays. Italian outlet Corriere della Sera said Mirko Vicini, 31, was just below the bridge. Bruno Casagrande, 35, is feared to have died with his colleague.<doc-sep>The search operation for those missing after the Morandi motorway bridge collapsed in the Italian port city of Genoa ended overnight after the last three bodies were found, bringing the official death toll to 43. A 200-metre section of the bridge gave way in busy traffic on Tuesday, plunging vehicles, concrete and twisted metal to the ground 50 metres (165 feet) below. After three bodies were recovered from a crushed car over the weekend, the Genoa prefecture raised its official death toll. Nine people are still in hospital, four in a critical condition, it said. All those listed as missing have now been accounted for, but Stefano Zanut, a fire brigade official, told Sky TG24: “Our work continues in order to have the full certainty that nobody has been left under the rubble.” He said workers were also making the site secure and helping investigations to establish the cause of the disaster. The viaduct was part of the A10 motorway that links Genoa with the French border to the west and was managed by toll-road operator Autostrade per l’Italia, a unit of the infrastructure group Atlantia. Autostrade pledged €500m (£449) on Saturday to rebuild the bridge and set up funds to immediately assist the families of the victims and those displaced from their homes by the collapse and reconstruction work. The government launched a procedure to revoke concessions held by Autostrade to operate toll highways on Friday. It will also launch a plan next month to make Italy’s infrastructure safe, Giancarlo Giorgetti, the undersecretary in the prime minister’s office, said in a newspaper interview. “It will be a maintenance operation with no precedents, with enormous investment in public works”, including not only motorways, bridges and viaducts but also public buildings such as schools, he told Il Messaggero. Giorgetti did not specify the cost of the plan, but said: “Deficit, GDP or European rules do not exist” and that the EU “will be benevolent”. The European commission limits the budget deficit of EU member states to 3% of GDP. The government is due to update its economic targets in September before drawing up the 2019 budget, and investors are concerned that its spending plans might ignore EU fiscal rules and push up the country’s debt, the highest in the eurozone after Greece. Asked whether the government would halt the procedure against Autostrade if investigators found the group had no responsibility for the bridge collapse, Giorgetti did not answer.<doc-sep>He also said the firm would provide funding to help relocate hundreds of people who had to be moved out of their homes after the bridge collapsed.<doc-sep>A TRUCK driver who was seconds away from death has broken his silence, days after Italian authorities confirmed at least 39 people died from the Genoa bridge collapse. The 37-year-old dad, known only as FL, had been delivering groceries for a local supermarket when the freeway fell away, causing more than 30 cars to drop. An overtaking car had forced FL to slow down but when he saw that same car drop off the edge of the freeway, he immediately managed to slam on his brakes. “I saw the road collapsing, with all the cars that I had in front of me at that time,” FL told rescuers. “When a car overtook me I slowed down … (then) at a certain moment everything shook. The car in front of me disappeared and seemed to be swallowed up by the clouds. I looked up and saw the bridge pylon fall,” he said. “Instinctively, finding myself in front of the void, I put the van into reverse, to escape this hell.” The driver left his green lorry precariously close to the edge of the collapsed road, telling Italian media how he had escaped the “hell” of the bridge collapse. “It was raining very hard and it wasn’t possible to go very fast,” he told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. The truck driver’s incredible tale of survival comes as authorities begin to name the victims. Authorities have confirmed at least 39 people have died and 15 were injured after the bridge collapsed. At least three children are among the dead, including a baby and a nine-year-old boy who died with his parents. Roberto Robbiano, 44, his wife Ersilia Piccinino, 41, and their son Samuel all died in the tragedy, Italian newspaper La Stampa reported. Inside their car, rescuers found Samuel with his favourite football decorated with Spider-Man images. The family was travelling to Sardinia via Genoa and rescuers found their car stuffed with beach toys and an umbrella. A family from Turin in northern Italy were also victims of the tragedy and had also been on their way to a beach holiday. The ANSA news agency identified the family as Andrea Vittone, 49, his partner Claudia Possetti, 47, and her children Manuele and Camilla Bellasio, aged 16 and 12. Alberto Fanfani, 32, and Marta Danisi, 29, from Florence, were two more victims. Ms Danisi worked as a nurse in the northern Italian town of Alessandria and her partner worked as an anaesthesiologist. Four young French friends on their way to a techno music festival were also among the dead: Melissa Artu-Bastit, her boyfriend Nathan Gusman, and friends Axelle Place and William Pouzadoux. Others include father and amateur footballer Andrea Cerulli, 48, and model Elisa Bozzo, 34, who was found dead after friends launched an appeal on Facebook. Mr Cerulli’s football team confirmed his death on Facebook, posting a tribute for the dad with a picture of him balancing his son on his shoulders. Another victim was 24-year-old Stella Boccia. Her parents run a restaurant in Tuscany and confirmed their daughter’s death via their Facebook page. “We apologise to our customers, but we will be closed for mourning. Unfortunately a piece of our hearts remains under the rubble of the Genoa bridge.” Ms Boccia’s boyfriend Carlos Trujillo was killed with her. Mr Trujillo was from Peru and the couple had only been together for a few months. Three other South Americans, who had made their home in Italy, were among other victims. Chef Juan Carlos Pastenes, 64, from Santiago, Chile died after spending more than 30 years in his adopted Italian hometown. His wife Nora Rivera, and their friend Juan Figueroa Carrasco were in the same car and died together. Survivors who witnessed the bridge collapse have spoken about the horror moment of watching almost 100m of road collapse as if it was “made with flour”. A truck driver had just passed the crumbling section when he looked in his rear-view mirror and saw it give way. “I saw the bridge collapse in the rear-view mirror, a terrible fear, I’m miraculously alive,” he told Repubblica. Italy’s government has blamed the firm that operated the collapsed Genoa bridge for the disaster as it announced a state of emergency in the region. Search operations are continuing and rescuers have spent the past few nights digging through mountains of crushed concrete. A vast span of the Morandi Bridge caved in during a heavy rainstorm in the northern port city on Tuesday, sending about 35 cars and several trucks plunging 45m onto railway tracks below. The tragedy has focused anger on the structural problems that have dogged the decades-old bridge and the private sector firm Autostrade per l’Italia, which is currently in charge of operating and maintaining swathes of the country’s motorways. Italian deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio said the tragedy “could have been avoided”. “Autostrade should have done maintenance and didn’t do it,” he alleged. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte also confirmed that his government would push to revoke the company’s contract for the A10 motorway, which includes the bridge, while Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said the company should be fined up to €150 million ($A235 million). The firm, which said the bridge had been undergoing maintenance work, released a statement refuting accusations of underfunding of motorway infrastructure. “In the last five years (2012-2017) the company’s investment in the security, maintenance and strengthening of the network has been over €1 billion [$A1.5 billion] a year,” it said. — with wires<doc-sep>
Italy bridge: Aftermath of collapsed Genoa motorway bridge At least 37 people died in the collapse of the Morandi bridge. Among them is a young family of three, wiped out when their car fell 100m above the ground. The relatives of Roberto Robbiano, his wife Ersilia Piccinino, and their eight-year-old son Samuel are mourning their loved ones, who found death when the mainstays of the bridge gave way yesterday, at about 11.30am local time (10.30am GMT). The couple, who lived with their son in Campomorone, a town north of Genoa, got married in 2014. Two more children, aged 12 and 13, were killed in the tragedy. The Mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, confirmed the death of an unnamed boy, without saying whether his family was also killed in the crash. He said: “Florence is gripped by the family of the Florentine boy who lost his life in the tragic collapse of the viaduct in Genoa and the loved ones of all the other victims.” More people are coming together on social media to express their pain for the loss of loved ones. Genoa bridge collapse: At least 37 people including a family of three died in the tragedy Friends of an amateur football player, Andrea Cerulli, who also lost his life in the collapse, wrote on Facebook: “Genoa Club Portuali Voltri rallying around Andrea's family, our associate, our friend, our colleague, victim of Ponte Morandi's tragedy.” Mr Cerulli, father of a young son, was killed on his way to work. Luigi Matti Altadonna, 35, died while driving his work van over the bridge. He received an heartfelt tribute from the mayor of the small town he lived in, Borghetto. Mayor Giancarlo Canepa said: “The municipal administration joins the pain of Giovanni, a model citizen and an exemplary volunteer of the Civil Protection Section of Borghetto, for the loss of his dear nephew in the terrible tragedy of Genoa.” Genoa bridge collapse: Roberto Robbiano, his wife Ersilia Piccinino and their son Samuel Genoa bridge collapse: The Morandi bridge was built in 1967 Mr Altadonna’s family had launched a desperate appeal to find him in the aftermath of the tragedy when he couldn’t be reached, but were later called to hospital to identify his body. Fallen debris and rubble also made victims. Two workers from local waste management company Ammiu were crashed by large pieces of the falling bridge while they were working at the ecological island located below the Morandi conduct. Company director Tiziana Merlino, who after the collapse shut down work on the island for an indefinite period of time, said: “The damages are invaluable but nothing compared to the pain for the lives lost.” Genoa bridge collapse: Rescuers are still working in the hope to find survivers To pay respect to the casualties, Genoa declared two days of mourning for Wednesday and Thursday. Authorities have so far confirmed the death of 37 people, but the death toll could still rise, as rescuers are still digging in the hope to find survivors. To date, seven people have been found alive among the rubble. One of them is Davide Capello, a Legino football player. Speaking from the hospital he called himself a “miraculous survivor”. Genoa: Moment motorway bridge COLLAPSES