Carmel Gattullo was only 15 years old when she died in 2015, in Ostia, after being hit on the pedestrian crossing of the Old Station square. Nine years later, it is her mother, Giuseppina Piantadosi, who returns to that tragedy: 'I lost my daughter who at 15 was killed on the pedestrian crossing, in 2015 in Ostia, while she was going to school, on a Monday morning. The person responsible was driving at 54 km per hour. My daughter would be alive, now, here, if that woman had been driving at 30 km per hour', she said, explaining why she was present at the Rete Città 30 subito rally, in front of the Ministry of Transport, to ask for the introduction of speed moderation in the new highway code. 'The probability of surviving is one in ten for those hit at 50 km per hour, at 30 km per hour you do not die. It's the speed that kills', adds Piantadosi showing the photo of smiling Carmen, printed on her t-shirt. 'My daughter was not unlucky, she was fabulous. There is no such thing as bad luck, there is a world and a city that need to change', she adds. 'In Italy, every day 9 people die from road violence and it is the leading cause of death among young people. No one has children anymore and let them die like this. I wonder what the future is'.
The story of Carmel Gattullo
Carmen was hit at 15 on the pedestrian crossing in Ostia by a woman who tested positive for drugs. She died after two weeks in a coma at the San Camillo, leaving her mother, father, and little sister in pain. A woman at the wheel of a Mini Cooper, who later tested positive for drugs, hit her on the pedestrian crossing while she was going to school. Carmen was attending her first year of classical high school and lived near the pedestrian island of Piazza Anco Marzio in Ostia.
That's why she was crossing the Old Station Square in front of the X Municipality headquarters. A few more meters and she would have taken the bus and joined her classmates as every other day. A model student, she had become passionate about athletics and had just enrolled in a course. She wanted to travel, to know the world. She loved music and her idol was Marco Mengoni.
The mobilization
'Greater speed moderation in urban areas is the first piece of a transformation that includes the redesign and redevelopment of streets and squares and the reduction of the use, or rather abuse, of private cars for the benefit of all people, public transport, pedestrians and cyclists, workers during their movements and all remaining private and professional vehicle traffic. Moreover, we reiterate that on the main roads the limit remains at 50 km/h or even higher speeds, if the configuration of the roads allows it'. These are the words of the associations of the Platform that therefore launch an appeal to Parliament where the reform of the Highway Code presented by the Minister of Transport is under discussion. 'In the reform, speed moderation is completely absent, important tools for rule control and for the promotion of cycling and sustainable mobility are cut out, seriously risking to stop urban innovation and increase the Italian delay in road safety and sustainable mobility. We therefore ask for an urgent revision of the DDL and announce mobilizations in many Italian cities in view of the arrival in Parliament for the discussion and final approval of the ddl, to defend the autonomy of local administrations in matters of sustainable mobility, against the ideological positions recently advanced by the Minister'.
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