VICOPISANO. He had just returned from work, around 3 a.m. on the night between Sunday and yesterday (August 17). The time to park the car and head towards his home just a few meters away, on viale XX Settembre in Vicopisano, and in an instant he was hit by a young man driving a Mercedes A-Class who, instead of stopping to help, fled the scene. These were the last moments of life for Paolo Pandolfi, a 33-year-old cook, who died almost instantly after being hit just steps from the door of his apartment near the town center.
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The suspect
For investigators, the hit-and-run driver is a 29-year-old local man, whom the carabinieri traced within a few hours from the car registered to a relative. A fragment of the bodywork left on the road after the impact provided clues about the type of vehicle: the rest was done by private cameras installed in the area where the tragedy occurred, which shocked the entire Vicopisano community and beyond. Thus, the Carabinieri tracked down the driver – reported and investigated for aggravated vehicular manslaughter due to fleeing the scene, but not currently arrested or detained – and went to pick him up at home in the early morning hours. At the station, he reportedly told investigators he thought he had hit an animal with the car.
The rescue
The alarm was raised by a resident who, awakened by the noise of the collision, looked out the window and saw the victim lying on the ground. On site were an ambulance from Misericordia di Vicopisano and the 118 emergency doctor vehicle, but despite resuscitation attempts, there was no hope for the 33-year-old. The investigations, as well as the inquiries coordinated by the Prosecutor’s Office, were handled by the carabinieri of the San Giovanni alla Vena station, with the support of the Mobile Operational Unit. On one hand, the reconstruction of the dynamics, on the other, the need to quickly identify the hit-and-run driver.
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No tests
The goal was achieved, but the hours passed since the tragedy caused the flagrancy to lapse and the 29-year-old was not arrested, although this does not exclude that his freedom may still be restricted later. For the same timing reasons, toxicological tests were not performed to verify possible alcohol or drug use by the driver, given the difficulty in establishing the exact time of consumption, whether before or after the impact.
The victim
Employed for several years in the restaurant industry after graduating from the hotel school in Pisa, Paolo Pandolfi worked at “I’m Burger” in Pontedera, opened last November on the Tosco Romagnola. Friends describe him as a good, cheerful, and helpful young man. Yesterday, social media were flooded with dozens of messages of affection and condolences, a collective embrace accompanied by images of the smiling young man. The 33-year-old leaves behind his father, a brother, and a sister, to whom the body will be returned after the autopsy. “A death like this leaves a void that no words can fill, and a pain before which to be close with discretion and affection,” said the Vicopisano municipal administration, which asks for “silence as a form of respect towards a family going through a very hard trial.”
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