At the end of every weekend we find ourselves doing the sad count of deaths and injuries on the roads. The episode he saw was shocking a car with 9 very young people on board ended up in the Villoresi canal in Senago: three of them, aged 17, died. The driver, drunk, is under arrest. In Palermo, a car while overtaking was prohibited and killed a woman and injured another person… A continuous massacre, which intensifies on weekends…
The data
In 2024 (last year available) in Italy – certifies Istat – more than that were registered 174 thousand accidents and 233 thousand injured in Italy. Among these, 16,735 seriously injured, -4.9% compared to 2019. The goal by 2030 is to reduce deaths and serious injuries by 50%. According to statistics reported by experts, 2025 shows moderate progress, since in the first preliminary estimates of road accidents, in the period January-June, 82,344 road accidents and 111,090 injuries were recorded. The decrease in victims in the first half of 2025 demonstrates progress towards achieving the European 2030 objectives.
This means that slowly, very slowly, too slowly, we are going in the right direction.
Three 17-year-old boys, two young men and a girl, lost their lives at dawn today after the car in which they were traveling with six other people crashed into the Villoresi canal in Senago, in the Milan area. The driver of the car, a 19-year-old Italian citizen, is under investigation for aggravated vehicular homicide. As it turns out, he tested positive for alcohol.
(HANDLE)
The law
From 14 December 2024 a Reformed Highway Code precisely to reduce accidents and fatalities. Law 177 of 2024 has tightened the penalties for those who drive under the influence of alcohol – as happened in the tragic episode in Senago – or drugs, introducing zero tolerance for new drivers in the first three years, fines of up to six thousand euros and arrest for the highest rates, as well as longer license suspensions. If the cause of the accident is drunkenness, the penalties even double.
The scene of the accident near Pioppo, just outside Palermo, where a group of cyclists were hit by a car that was overtaking, Palermo, 21 June 2026.
(HANDLE)
How to intervene
If the law exists and seems to be going in the right direction, being severe towards those who drive while impaired, what is still missing? What can be done. It is theItalian association of families of road victims to indicate the way forward: «Every year in Italy a town of almost four thousand people disappears. There are many victims on Italian roads; 300,000 are injured, and over 20,000 seriously disabled resulting from this undeclared war. The European Parliament has asked Italy to reduce these numbers by 50% over ten years. The Italian state responded to this with an ever-decreasing coverage of the territory and with a serious delay in adapting the police forces and the rules of the Highway Code. After every serious accident, a painful and exhausting legal process begins which should lead to the identification of responsibilities, the punishment of those responsible with penalties commensurate with the severity of their crimes, and to ensuring fair compensation for the victims or their families. Also in this field Italy stands out negatively from the rest of Europe, with slow and approximate justice, which continually tramples on the dignity of man and those values that our constitution should protect. The problems of road safety and justice concern everyone, no one excluded! We have united to stop the massacre and affirm the right to life and justice.
