Two Crashes in One Hour Snarl Turin-Savona Motorway: Ceva-Millesimo Stretch Shut Down, No Major Injuries Reported
Afternoon traffic on Italy’s A6 Torino-Savona motorway turned chaotic Saturday when two separate accidents struck within 60 minutes, forcing authorities to slam shut the stretch between Ceva and Millesimo toward Turin and sparking widespread delays for holiday weekend travelers. The back-to-back wrecks—thankfully without severe casualties—highlight the perils of the notoriously tricky “highway of death,” where winding mountain curves have long tested drivers’ nerves.
The first incident unfolded around 3 p.m. near Millesimo, involving a multi-vehicle pileup that scattered debris across lanes and ignited minor fires, per initial police scans. Just shy of an hour later, a second crash erupted closer to Ceva, this time a heavy goods vehicle skidding into barriers amid reports of slippery conditions from light rain. Autostrada Torino-Savona S.p.A. (ATS) swiftly deployed crews, erecting barriers and rerouting traffic via state road SS28 through the Ligurian Apennines—a detour notorious for its hairpin turns and truck bottlenecks. As of 8 p.m., the closure persisted, with ViaMichelin mapping jams stretching 10 km back to the Savona exit and alternate routes clogged by spillover.
The A6, stretching 124 km from Turin’s industrial sprawl to Savona’s bustling port, is no stranger to such drama. Dubbed “La Verdemare” for its verdant coastal flanks, the motorway’s Ceva-Altare segment earned its grim “highway of death” moniker in the 1970s and ’80s, when single-carriageway stretches fueled 91 head-on collisions in 1971 alone, claiming three lives that year. Judicial shutdowns followed in 1980, and full doubling dragged until 2001, slashing fatalities but not the inherent risks of its Apennine climbs—elevations topping 800 meters with gradients that challenge even modern ABS systems. Recent upgrades, like ATS’s €73 million Fossano-Priero widening in 2020, aimed to tame the beast, yet Saturday’s pileups underscore persistent vulnerabilities in wet weather.
Eyewitnesses painted a tense scene. “One minute it’s clear skies, the next cars are spinning like tops—brakes just locked,” recounted Turin-bound commuter Elena Rossi, 42, via a viral X clip from the scene, where she captured flashing blues amid a sea of brake lights. Local fire brigades from Cuneo and Savona provinces mobilized 20 units, extinguishing flares and extricating trapped motorists by 5 p.m., while Carabinieri tallied at least six vehicles involved across both events. Preliminary probes point to aquaplaning and tailgating as culprits, exacerbated by post-All Saints’ Day traffic swells—over 50,000 vehicles logged on the A6 that afternoon, per ATS telemetry.
ATS spokesperson Luca Bianchi addressed the media from the Millesimo ops center: “Safety first— we’ve got drones mapping the wreckage for safe clearance, but the terrain’s unforgiving. Expect the shutdown through midnight; use the app for live ETAs.” No fatalities emerged, a small mercy amid the snarl, though medics treated seven for whiplash and cuts at nearby Santa Croce Hospital in Cuneo. Regional transport minister Matteo Marnati echoed the sentiment on X, vowing “swift probes and infrastructure boosts” while urging apps like Waze for detours.
Social feeds buzzed with frustration and fortitude. La Stampa’s alert post racked 1,200 views in hours, spawning threads of stranded families sharing pizza deliveries and impromptu tailgates. One Cuneo native quipped, “A6 strikes again—better pack prosecco for the wait,” while trucker forums like Reddit’s r/ItaliaPersonalFinance griped over lost hauls, estimating €500K in delayed freight from Savona’s container yards. Echoes of 2019’s landslide-induced bridge collapse near Savona—miraculously casualty-free but shuttering lanes for weeks—fueled calls for seismic retrofits, with environmentalists blaming unchecked hillside erosion.
For U.S. road warriors and Italophiles, the A6 saga hits familiar notes: much like I-80’s Sierra Nevada twists or the Pacific Coast Highway’s fog-shrouded perils, it’s a reminder that even upgraded arteries carry ghosts of past wrecks. Economically, the closure bites into Piedmont-Liguria trade—Savona’s port handles 2 million TEUs yearly, feeding Fiat Chrysler plants in Turin; delays could tack €1-2 million in logistics hits, per Coldiretti estimates on perishable Ligurian olive hauls. Politically, it spotlights Italy’s €200 billion infrastructure backlog under Meloni’s PNRR push, with 2025 audits flagging A6’s viaducts for quake-proofing amid Apennine tremors.
Lifestyle disruptions ripple wide: Weekend skiers bound for Ceva’s slopes reroute through Genoa’s A10, adding two hours and nausea-inducing tunnels, while families en route to Turin’s chocolate festivals face soggy picnics. Tech aids shine—ATS’s Telepass alerts pinged 10,000 users preemptively, and AR dash cams from Bosch are piloting here to flag hydroplaning risks. Sports tie? Juventus fans crawling home from Savona derbies commiserate over similar snarls on the A21 to Milan.
As cleanup crews grind under floodlights—projected reopen by dawn Sunday—the Torino-Savona accidents Ceva Millesimo headache tests Italian resilience once more. ATS forecasts full clearance barring rain, but with forecasts calling for showers, the “highway of death” nickname lingers like exhaust. Travelers, plot wisely: Apps say SS28’s your reluctant savior, but pack patience—Italy’s roads reward the prepared with views that outshine the jams.
By Mark Smith
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