Hospital discharge for survivor of cable car accident in Italy

The 5-year-old Israeli boy, the sole survivor of the cable car crash that killed 14 May 23 in northern Italy, was released from hospital on Thursday after his health deteriorated. “Significantly improved”. The health authorities in Turin (North West), where he was being treated, specify that the child “returned home with an ambulance (…) accompanied by his aunt”. The boy lives in Pavia, south of Milan. “His condition has improved markedly,” the statement said, adding that full recovery should take two months.

The little boy is the only passenger to survive the fall into the void of the cabin from the cable car to Stresa, near the top of Mount Mottarone. The other 14 passengers, including his parents, two-year-old younger brother and great-grandparents, all died. Eitan, whose family emigrated to Italy in 2018, suffered various traumas and fractures in the abdomen and thorax.

Several officials of the company managing the cable car are being prosecuted by the justice system who suspects them for deliberately deactivating the emergency braking system which should have blocked the cab when the cable broke.