LONE SURVIVOR OF ITALY CABLE CAR CRASH TO LEAVE ICU

The sole survivor of last week's Italian cable car accident - a 5-year-old boy who lost his parents and sibling - is set to leave the intensive care unit on Tuesday, according to hospital officials in Turin, Johannes Neudecker reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

The hospital on Monday said the boy's injuries, primarily to his chest and abdomen, were healing. He continues to be accompanied by his aunt while under medical care.

Fourteen people died on May 23 when a gondola on a cable car line crashed to the ground while ascending from Stresa, Italy, to Mount Mottarone in northern Italy.

The cause of the accident remains unclear, though prosecutors have alleged that operators used a temporary fix to keep the system running when it should have been shut down for more thorough maintenance.

According to initial findings, a clamp had been used to disable the emergency brake system, which had been malfunctioning.

Investigators believe this could have been the cause of the disaster.

A technician employed by the company in charge of the cable car line said in an interview that he had no idea clamps had been used on the gondolas. Enrico Perocchio, in an interview with the newspaper La Stampa published on Monday, said he was not aware of the operational workaround.

"If I had known about it, I would not have supported this decision," said Perocchio, who served as the technical director of the line that connects the town of Stresa with the 1,500-meter-high Mount Mottarone, west of Lake Maggiore.

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