IN A court hearing in Rome yesterday public prosecutor Andrea Mosca called for the immediate imprisonment of Friedrich Vernarelli, the 32-year-old Roman who killed two Irish tourists, Elizabeth Ann Gubbins and Mary Claire Collins, in a hit-and-run incident at a pedestrian crossing in the city centre early on Tuesday.
Mr Vernarelli is under house arrest but Ms Mosca asked for his imprisonment on the grounds that new information had become available.
When stopped by police on Tuesday morning, Mr Vernarelli refused to take a breathalyser test. It was only when he was taken to hospital for a check-up that doctors discovered that his alcohol level was four-and-a-half times above the legal limit.
Armed with this new information, the public prosecutor yesterday requested a "preventive detention" for Mr Vernarelli, adding that the defendant was "a danger to society" and ran the risk of repeating the offence.
Preliminary Hearing Judge Luisana Figliolia is expected to rule on the request this morning.
For the time being, Mr Vernarelli has been charged with manslaughter and failure to stop and offer assistance. Drunken driving may be added to those charges when Judge Figliolia delivers her verdict this morning. If found guilty, Mr Vernarelli could, in theory, be facing an eight- to 10-year prison sentence.
Legal experts, however, suggested yesterday that the final sentence may be more lenient, in accordance with Mr Vernarelli's clean criminal record.
Meanwhile, members of both the Gubbins and Collins families arrived in Rome yesterday on the sad mission of accompanying the bodies home to Ireland. Judicial and bureaucratic procedures may mean that it could take 10 days before the bodies are released. It was reported that autopsies were carried out yesterday.
The incident was one of the major news items in yesterday's Italian media with commentators highlighting the hit-and-run. Rome daily La Repubblicacarried a front-page picture from the scene of the accident with the headline "Drunk in his car, he kills two tourists and is then put under house arrest".
The deaths have highlighted the dangers of Rome traffic which in 2007 saw no fewer than 40,000 accidents. On average, 180 people die in road accidents each year in the city. Of 672 pedestrians killed on Italian roads in 2005, 202 died at pedestrian crossings.
Another Rome daily, Il Messaggero, also carried a front-page picture of the accident with a story inside, entitled: "Police checks are few, sentences are light or not even applied, that is why Italian roads are killers".
Mr Vernarelli's father, Roberto, a former policeman and former president of Rome's XVIIth Municipio (district), who had at first described his son as a "normal boy" was yesterday quoted as saying that Friedrich would have to "pay" for what he had done: "My son has made a very grave mistake, too serious a mistake, he will have to pay for it right to the last. He's a normal boy. On Monday night, we all ate a pizza together and then he went out, just like all the kids of his age do. After that I don't know what happened or who he met up with."
Mr Vernarelli said his son shared his sentiments and was now aware of what he had done. Friedrich, who still lives at home, has been described as the classic bamoccione (spoiled big child). The Mercedes car he was driving is registered in a family name. He runs a bed & breakfast business set up for him by his father.
An uncle of Ms Gubbins last night thanked the agencies involved in helping the bereaved families, Kathryn Hayes writes. Canon Willie Fitzmaurice, Kilmallock, Co Limerick, said the family was coping as well as could be expected. Elizabeth had begun a new job as a biochemist in a pharmaceutical company, GeneMedix, in Tullamore, Co Offaly. She had a Masters in biochemistry from UCD. Mary Collins was also a science graduate and is survived by parents Kevin and Patricia, a brother and a sister.