A couple of lifts were sabotaged on Passo Rolle on the night of November 30th, between Friday and Saturday, on the eve of the opening of the season.
The first lift that the operators realised has been sabotaged during a test drive, was the Ferrari lift. The lift has to remain closed for opening day. One of the six trefoil, cables that make up the rope, has been cut. Checks were also taking place on the Paradiso lift, next to the Ferrari lift.
This has been a ‘considerable damage, changing the rope of that type costs hundreds of thousands of Euros’ said the President of the Engineering company Giacobbe Zortea, ‘but we will not die, we will guarantee the safety of the facilities for tourists and operators of the Passo (Rolle)’.
It is ‘fair’, he concluded, that these people pay for an ‘irresponsible gesture’.
Complaints were immediately raised to the Carabinieri of Primiero, which together with the colleagues of the Compagnia di Cavalese, have arrived at the site for an inspection. They were assessing the site soonafter, investigating the damage done.
Zortea said that this sabotage was done by an ‘expert hand’. Those who did this could only break one of the strands that makes up the cable, but the damage is still huge.
After checking the Ferrari lift, there was a confirmation that the Paradiso lift was also affected. For the carabinieri, even this gesture, would have not compromised the safety of the skiers.
The saboteur had started to break the Paradiso rope but perhaps they could have been surprised, they have given up.
Both systems belong to the San Martino Passo Rolle spa company, established in August this year.
Investigation of this affair continues on the eve of the re-opening, a sabotage that, for the Carabinieri of Cavalese, would not have compromised the safety of skiers. At the moment they are comparing the data emerging from the inspection, the testimonies and the images taken by the cameras in some points that could be strategic.
Meanwhile Paolo Boninsegna, director of Sitr Rolle, the company that ran the lifts until July, recalls two disturbing incidents that occurred in the past.
The first – in the summer of 2015 when the house were the staff of the chairlifts was staying was set on fire, the second in 2016, at the beginning of the season when the hut at the start of the two chairlifts got burnt.
“I thought they had been doing this to me because at that time the company had been put up for sale – said Boninsegna – but now I have no idea why this has happened”.
Translated from Rai News TGR Trento
Rai News TGR Trento article 4
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Featured Image: Ski map of Passo Rolle and San Martino di Castrozza. A couple of lifts were sabotaged in Passo Rolle.