Simon Gautier, the French hiker
who died after falling into a ravine near Salerno earlier this
month, died of "haemorrhagic shock" after severing his left
femoral artery when his legs broke, an autopsy said Wednesday.
The 27-year-old, who managed to call emergency services after
the fall, survived a maximum of 45 minutes after his fall,
pathologists said.
A probe has been opened into how long it took rescuers to get
to Gautier.
His body was found in a gully near Salerno Sunday night, nine
days after he called emergency services saying he had fallen and
broken his legs, and a probe has been opened into alleged delays
in the search and rescue effort.
The body was found at Belvedere di Ciolandrea near San
Giovanni a Piro.
He made the emergency call after his fall on August 9 but
search and rescue operations only started 28 hours later, and
without the aid of geolocation because in Italy emergency calls
cannot be geolocated despite a 2009 EU directive to that effect.
However, a preliminary postmortem examination said he died
less than an hour after falling, after severing an artery in his
leg.
Friends and family who came from France to take part in the
rescue bid have criticised the alleged delays.
"Mistakes were made from the start," they said.
Gautier fell in a remote area of the rocky coast near Salerno
where it is hard to locate cellphone signals, sources said.
The president of the Italian 118 emergency response system
company, Mario Balzanelli, said Gautier would have been
immediately geolocated, "very swiftly" rescued and his life
probably saved if Italy had applied the 2009 EU directive on the
geolocation of emergency calls.
"This case points to the glaring, absurd and untenable fact
that in Italy the 118 switchboards are still without the
emergency call geolocation system, although this is envisaged by
an industry minister decree in 2009," he said.
The probe has been opened by prosecutors in Vallo della
Lucania near Salerno.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
