ROME (AP) — Police in northern Italy have made three arrests in a cable car disaster that killed 14 people. Authorities said Wednesday that an investigation showed a clamp was placed on the brake as a patchwork repair and prevented the brake from engaging after the lead cable snapped. A prosecutor hypothesized that the operators of the sightseeing funicular used the jerry-rigged clamp to avoid having to shut the attraction for more extensive repairs. She said it still wasn’t clear why the lead cable broke but that the intentional deactivation of the brake prevented it from doing its job. The revelations turned the horror of Sunday’s disaster into outrage since the tragedy appeared to have been preventable.
