A day of celebration turned into a drama in Vibo Valentia, where on Friday afternoon a three -year -old boy was seriously injured in the urban park inaugurated a few months ago after redevelopment works. According to the first reconstructions, the baby was with his dad when he leaning on a beam of the obstacle route: the structure, collapsed suddenly, hit him between chest and abdomen leaving him on the ground without breathing. Moments of panic among those present, some of which immediately tried to free him and revive him waiting for the rescue. A 118 ambulance intervened on the spot which urgently transported the child to the Vibo hospital, where the doctors found very serious internal lesions and performed a delicate intervention to stop a liver bleeding. In the following hours, given the complexity of the clinical picture, the transfer to the Bambin Gesù in Rome with a military flight from Lamezia, reached by ambulance, was arranged, and the child is now hospitalized in resuscitation in a reserved prognosis, with doctors who do not exclude further operations.
The Municipality of Vibo immediately closed the green area to allow the technical checks, the police seized the structures and the prosecutor has opened a file against unknown persons to ascertain whether the company in charge has respected all the safety standards in the installation and if the tests were carried out correctly. It is likely that in the next few hours municipal technicians and responsible for the company are listened to. A detail that aggravates the story is the presence of a sign that signaled how the system was intended for adult users with suitable physical preparation and under the supervision of instructors, but there were no barriers or controls to prevent access to children, who continued to use it as a normal playground. The accident deeply shaken the city and rekindled the debate on the safety of public spaces: many citizens have expressed indignation asking for clarity on the responsibilities. “A three -year -old boy – some parents commented – should never risk their lives in a place that should be safe for families”. The next few weeks will be decisive to understand if it was a design, maintenance or management error.