Editorial Ta Nea: Bridges

The press report stirs terror. No one knows how safe the bridges in our country are, nor if and when they are ever inspected. The only thing we know is that they are old and have been left to their own fate.

The conclusions of experts leave no room for complacency. Emeritus Professor of Engineering and member of the Academy of Athens Theodosis Tasios in Ta Nea underlines that one cannot rule out the collapse of one of the many bridges in the country’s road network.

The tragedy in Genoa is too fresh for the state to remain indifferent. The country should not have to mourn dead in order for the government to mobilise the competent services, and indeed having playing the game of passing the buck. It does not need yet another parade of officials that will babble excuses, as they did at the site of the disastrous Mandra flood and the deadly Mati wildfire.

Meanwhile, the relatives and friends of the victims still seek vindication for the loved ones they lost so unjustly.
Those in power often preoccupy themselves with petty political and petty partisan exercises. However, politics is about solving daily problems. It is about taking measures to protect the whole of society, creating conditions of security in public spaces, and averting a Greek tragedy, of the sort that Italy experienced.

From that perspective, maintenance of infrastructure is a vital issue. Consequently, attention must be paid to the experts that are ringing the alarm bells.

They must be heeded especially by a government which for the sake of pre-election handouts has frozen public investment – especially those investments that literally save lives.