A dramatic road accident this morning caused bloodshed on the A4 motorway between Piedmont and Lombardy, killing four people.
The dynamics reconstructed by investigators are chilling in their simplicity: a seventy-year-old driver, resident of Cerano (Novara), entered the Turin-Milan motorway in the wrong direction from the Marcallo Mesero exit.
The man, driving a Peugeot 207 and born in 1943 in Magenta, allegedly mistook the passing lane for the normal lane, finding himself driving the wrong way on the highway. The tragic outcome occurred at kilometer 102, where he was involved in a violent head-on collision with another car carrying four Novara residents.
The impact was devastating: three occupants of the second car—a man born in Potenza in 1987 and two other passengers—died instantly. A fourth person, a woman born in Trento in 1988, was intubated on the scene and transported in critical condition to Niguarda Hospital in Milan by air ambulance. The driver who had driven the wrong way on the highway also died.
Traffic police, paramedics, and firefighters immediately responded to the scene, working for hours to free the bodies from the wreckage and restore traffic flow. The stretch of highway between Novara Est and Mercallo Mesero was closed for a long time to allow for rescue and survey work, causing traffic jams for kilometers.
The incident refocuses attention on the phenomenon of wrong-way entry onto the highway, a danger that unfortunately continues to claim victims despite repeated warnings from authorities. The traffic police's investigation is now focused on determining the exact circumstances and the driver's mental and physical condition at the time of the accident.
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What happened on the highway is a tragic event; it's unbelievable how someone could cross lanes. Drivers need to be more educated to avoid similar accidents in the future, especially on highways.