Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
Photo sent by Franco Assenza
GIARRE – A terrible road accident occurred in the early hours of this morning, at around 6.30am, leaving a trail of blood on the A18 Messina-Catania motorway. The provisional toll is tragic: one dead and several seriously injured.
The crash took place on the stretch between the Giarre and Fiumefreddo di Sicilia toll booths, precisely a few metres past the entry ramp of the Giarre junction, heading towards the city of the Strait.
The sequence of events: load overturns and violent collision
According to the initial reconstructions carried out by Traffic Police officers, the accident involved a Fiat Panda and a heavy goods vehicle transporting stone material (boulders). For reasons still under investigation by the authorities, the lorry suddenly lost one of the side panels of its container along the carriageway, triggering a violent collision with the oncoming small car.
As a result of the devastating impact, the driver of the Fiat Panda died instantly. The other passengers in the car suffered extremely serious injuries.
Rescue efforts and air ambulance intervention
A complex rescue operation was mobilised at the scene:
- Health and hygiene services: Doctors from the 118 emergency service arrived with several ambulances and requested the prompt intervention of the air ambulance, which landed directly on the motorway to urgently transfer the most seriously injured to the trauma centre at Cannizzaro hospital in Catania.
- Fire Brigade: Firefighters worked for a long time to extract the occupants from the twisted metal of the small car and secure the road.
- Investigations and traffic management: Traffic Police patrols carried out technical surveys to determine responsibility and coordinate traffic management.
Traffic at a standstill towards Messina
The incident caused motorway traffic towards Messina to grind to a halt. To allow rescue operations, the removal of the crashed vehicles and the recovery of the stone material scattered on the asphalt, there are kilometres of tailbacks and severe delays along the entire route.
