Four-year-old Summer has tragically passed away at Florence’s Meyer paediatric hospital. Medical staff confirmed her death following the completion of brain death confirmation procedures. This brings the death toll to four in the horrific accident yesterday that devastated a family from Gravellona Toce in Piedmont’s Verbano-Cusio-Ossola province as they travelled northbound on the A1 motorway.
The collision occurred in the Mugello section (Florence) between Barberino and Firenzuola, shortly before entering Emilia-Romagna. Summer’s maternal grandparents, Mauro Visconti, 69, originally from Verbania, and Nydia Zoila Albuquerque Basulto, 65, from Lima, Peru, along with her aunt, Carla Stephany Visconti, 39, died instantly. Summer died today. Her mother, Silvana Visconti, 37, is the sole survivor, hospitalised in critical condition in the intensive care unit of Careggi hospital’s trauma centre. A family dog also perished in the crash.
The entire family was travelling in a Fiat Panda which, for reasons under investigation, stalled in the driving lane inside the Base tunnel. Following cars managed to avoid it, but a truck could not. The impact was violent. Firefighters extracted the occupants from the wreckage; three were deceased, while mother and daughter were airlifted to Florence hospitals in critical condition. Despite all efforts by Meyer hospital staff, Summer could not survive her injuries.
The Florence Prosecutor’s Office has ordered external examinations of the victims’ bodies and is investigating the truck driver, a 56-year-old Moldovan citizen who tested negative for alcohol, for vehicular manslaughter.
Bologna traffic police, tasked with the investigation, are focusing on why the Panda, driven by the 37-year-old mother, stalled. The prevailing hypothesis, according to sources, is a possible mechanical or electronic failure. Surveillance footage reportedly shows the car stopping almost abruptly, then activating its hazard lights moments later. This detail suggests the driver did not suffer a sudden medical episode, though this has not been entirely ruled out.
The vehicle was a hybrid model certified for four occupants, yet five people were onboard. It remains unclear if Summer was in a proper child seat, a device not yet found at the scene. Little remains of the car after being struck by the truck; officers are conducting complex forensic examinations on the wreckage, a process expected to take days. Investigators will also determine if the truck driver’s speed was appropriate, as preceding vehicles avoided the stationary Panda while his truck did not.