A file for manslaughter, currently against persons unknown, has been opened, and an autopsy ordered to establish the full circumstances of the death of Saim Myrtaj, the 59-year-old worker who fell on Monday afternoon from a scaffolding structure in Via Coletti, in Rivabella di Rimini. The public prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation and ordered the seizure of the scaffolding on which the accident occurred.
According to initial findings, the man was working on the second level of the scaffolding, which had been erected for maintenance work on a residential building. He is believed to have fallen to the level below, possibly through the opening used for the connecting ladder. The alarm was raised by a resident, who was alerted by a loud noise.
The 59-year-old was given first aid and resuscitated on the spot, then airlifted to the Bufalini hospital in Cesena, where he died a few hours later. Investigators will now need to reconstruct the exact dynamics of the accident and verify the safety conditions on the site and the use of protective equipment.
The tragedy also brought unions out into the streets. Fillea-Cgil, Filca-Cisl and Feneal-Uil, together with local confederations, organized a protest outside the Rimini Prefecture. “We cannot go on counting the dead,” the organizations declared, calling for more inspections on construction sites, more inspectors, better training, and greater scrutiny of the chain of contracts and subcontracts.
Condolences were also expressed by Rimini’s mayor, Jamil Sadegholvaad, who described workplace deaths as an “unacceptable scourge,” calling on institutions, businesses and social partners to take shared responsibility.
