ROME — A cable car accident in Italy’s Piedmont region on Tuesday left at least six people injured and dozens stranded, adding to growing concerns over cable car safety.
Helicopters rescued around 100 people after the incident near the village of Macugnaga, local authorities said.
The crash occurred at about 11:25 am when two cabins collided with the cable car’s upper and lower stations, the Italian fire service said. In a separate statement, firefighters said the accident involved two cabins which “impacted the structures of the upper and lower stations”.
Three of the 15 passengers travelling in the upper cabin were injured, along with an operator at the lower station, the fire service said.
Nearby ski slopes were closed and the lift was suspended immediately after the accident.
Police, firefighters and the Civil Alpine Rescue Service arrived quickly and evacuated people stranded on the mountain, most of them tourists.
Filippo Besozzi, managing director of lift operator Macugnaga Trasporti e Servizi, said a technical failure caused the crash. “One of the cabins failed to slow down as expected and hit a station barrier,” he said. Besozzi stressed that no one was seriously hurt. “Fortunately there are no serious injuries, nobody’s life is in danger,” he said. “There is a 59-year-old man who has a wound on his arm. Others have had minor grazes.”
The Macugnaga cable car was built in 1962 and underwent a major refurbishment in 2023. The work included replacing engines and cabins at a cost of about two million euros.
Recent cable car accidents
The incident follows a series of serious cable car accidents in Italy in recent years. In April, a cable car carrying tourists south of Naples crashed after a cable snapped, killing four people. That accident happened on Monte Faito, in the town of Castellammare di Stabia. It occurred just a week after the cable car, popular for views of Mount Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples, reopened for the season.
Italy was also shaken by a deadly crash in 2021 near Lake Maggiore in the north of the country. A cable car taking visitors to a panoramic mountaintop plunged to the ground, killing 14 people. Only one passenger, a young child, survived.
Authorities have not yet said when the Macugnaga lift will reopen or whether a formal investigation has been launched.
