On 15 April 2025, the Bologna prosecutor officially confirmed it is investigating twelve people in relation to the serious workplace accident that occurred on 23 October 2024 at the Toyota Material Handling facility in Borgo Panigale, Bologna, where two workers lost their lives and eleven others sustained injuries. Among those under investigation are the company’s last three managing directors. According to public prosecutors Francesca Rago and Morena Plazzi, the explosion that destroyed the plant’s thermal and refrigeration unit—connected to the tank believed to be the source of the blast—may have been caused by serious failings in the design, installation or maintenance of the system. The potential charges include manslaughter, negligent injury and causing a disaster through negligence.
The next key development in the investigation is scheduled for 5 May 2025, when experts will be appointed to carry out an unrepeatable technical analysis. These specialists will be tasked with reconstructing, in the finest detail, the characteristics, dimensions and dynamics of the incident. It will be a highly complex undertaking, made possible in part by the three-dimensional survey of the tank and plant components carried out by the Fire Brigade’s Fire Investigation Unit. The experts will need to reassemble the exploded system, examine all design documents and assess whether the maintenance was properly performed and managed over time. They will also evaluate the adequacy of the preventive measures in place, verify the presence or absence of emergency devices, and provide an overall assessment of the risk posed to workers.
In the five months following the explosion, investigators have interviewed dozens of witnesses and examined a large number of documents. Meanwhile, after being shut down for several weeks, the plant has resumed operations. Following the inclusion of its executives in the register of suspects, Toyota Material Handling reiterated its “full cooperation and complete trust in the work of the judiciary.”
