BRINDISI – A 27-year-old nurse who worked at the San Raffaele university hospital near Milan was driving home after two consecutive night shifts when she fatally crashed her car, the workers union said. Investigators are working to determine the exact cause of the accident, while trade unions are considering it a tragic result of unacceptable workload and workplace conditions.

 Sara Viva Sorge was driving along the provincial road San Vito dei Normanni-San Michele Salentino when she lost control and crashed into the pole.

 “This time it was not an accident on a construction site or inside a factory, but it was an accident waiting to happen,” said Chiara Cleopazzo of the Brindisi trade union, who has reported the problem of overworking hospital staff in the past. “This doesn’t make it any less serious.”

 Cleopazzo said “the whole community is questioning why a recently hired worker was immediately thrown into the middle of a complicated work situation. A nurse often manages 10 patients - the workload surpasses the limit and for this reason a long work shift and two consecutive nights is incomprehensible.”

 “It certainly doesn’t allow for the psychophysical recovery due,” added Cleopazzo.

  Maurizio Bruno, president of the Apulian Civil Protection, confirmed that Sorge "had been hired for about 20 days" and "found herself working at a fast pace, in a situation of difficulty and stress already known.”

 “There is not enough staff, especially at night, but there are always more patients. We cannot yet know what the actual cause of this tragedy was, but,” emphasised Bruno, “a nurse who gets into the car after two consecutive nights of work is a person more at risk than those who return from a job in very different conditions.”

The president of the Civil Protection said, “we cannot let this tragedy pass as a common road accident" because "gruelling shifts and complex working conditions constitute a danger not only in the workplace, but also in the hours immediately afterwards.”

ln