Fatal highway accident in Portici: investigation underway for double homicide

Torre Annunziata – The Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation into the possibility of double homicide in the tragedy that, shortly after dawn on Sunday, claimed the lives of Vincenzo Cozzolino, 27, and Salvatore Izzo, 22, both from Torre Annunziata.

The accident, which occurred on the Naples-Salerno highway, near the Portici junction , shocked the Oplonti community and left deep wounds, both among the victims' families and among the survivors, two of whom are still in serious condition.

The dynamics of the accident are still to be determined

Until the details of the accident are clear, it will be impossible to determine who is responsible. The prosecutor's office will have to appoint a technical expert to determine the speeds of the two cars involved, any braking, the force of the impact, and their trajectories.

Then, during the autopsy, both the driver of the Audi 3 in which the two young men who died were traveling and the driver of the car that was rear-ended will receive a notice of investigation as a required document.

According to initial reports from the Angri Highway Police , the car carrying the four young men from Torre Annunziata violently collided with another vehicle traveling in front, subsequently crashing into the highway barrier. The impact, which occurred at 6:40 a.m., was devastating, likely due to the high speed.

Investigators are not ruling out the possibility that the driver might have fallen asleep at the wheel, a hypothesis they are examining along with other possible causes, such as distraction, human error, or a technical failure. The four friends had spent the night in Naples.

Investigations underway

The Prosecutor's Office has ordered a series of investigations to clarify every aspect of the case. The bodies of Cozzolino and Izzo, currently under seizure and held in the morgues of the Ospedale del Mare and the Cardarelli hospitals, respectively, will undergo autopsies to determine whether the two young men died instantly and the exact cause of death.

The two cars involved in the accident were also seized for technical assessment. Investigators are still waiting to interview the driver of the Audi A3, who is currently hospitalized with a critical condition at Cardarelli Hospital.

His condition remains serious, with a critical spleen problem, while the other survivor from the Torre Annunziata group is under observation at the Ospedale del Mare trauma center. Only the driver's testimony will complete the picture, allowing us to close the loop on what happened.

The broken lives

Vincenzo Cozzolino and Salvatore Izzo were two young men full of dreams and plans. Salvatore, just 22, was supposed to begin his Army career yesterday, a long-awaited goal he never achieved. Vincenzo, 27, had returned to Campania from Umbria, where he had lived for a while, determined to rebuild his life in his homeland, close to his parents, who had returned to Torre Annunziata.

He was a great cycling enthusiast. Yesterday, he was remembered by the organizers of the Giro del Mediterraneo in Rosa: The large Giro Mediterraneo in Rosa family mourns the loss of Salvatore Izzo, who died in a car accident on Sunday on the Naples-Salerno highway.