But how can we talk about safety if in Italy the iron of the guardrails is stolen? It seems incredible but by now the latest target of thieves is no longer copper but the life-saving metal barriers for motorists. After the latest cases (64 bars removed from the guardrail of the A14 motorway viaduct 346 in the “Posta Stefana” area in Puglia, that of Caserta, of Vibo Valentia and that along the Provincial Road 60 of Manfredonia), the most sensational was that of yesterday, which sent traffic into a tailspin in the area north of Naples. In fact, it was precisely it that caused heavy traffic problems with difficult moments for motorists the theft of parts of the guardrail on the Melito-Scampia road axis. The local police intervened on the spot yesterday and saw a man who had disappeared from the sight of the agents inside the Roma settlement in viale della Resistenza. Then, unfortunately, the dangerous absence of parts of the parapets on the edge of the roadway and the verification of the municipal technicians led to the closure of the entire section between Melito and Scampia. Chaos.
Faced with such cases, talking about smart cities, connected cars, zero deaths on the roads is not only difficult, but ridiculous. I will always remember a surreal press conference by Smart, when after the first studies of the Fortwo Electric Drive in 2005, the brand was preparing to launch the production model. It was 2007, we were in Bari and after the ritual explanation of how the electric mode would work between infrastructures and recharges (true future at the time), a colleague from a local newspaper stands up and asks the German technician a question on the security systems of the columns. The Smart man starts with a precise description of the anti-overload devices, emergency blocks, real-time malfunction signals and more, but his colleague blocks him immediately. “Excuse me – he said – but I wasn’t referring to that. I wanted to know what security systems there are to prevent someone from stealing a column”.
The German doesn’t understand, he thinks he’s misinterpreted, he gets help from a translator, and when he gets it he doesn’t know what to say. He remains stone. Obvious, not only had such a thing in Germany never been foreseen, but never even thought of. For them it was madness, for us routine. Here, perhaps in this skit there is all the distance between us and the rest of Europe. A gap which, as confirmed by yesterday’s theft of the guardrail, has certainly not been filled.
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