Cocaine, cannabis, opiates, methadone and benzodiazepines. A drug test shows that Italian Francesco Moretti (53) had taken five different types of drugs when he knocked over Jessy Dewildeman (24) and Wibe Bijls (25) in Rome. The West Flemish best friends were killed. Moretti committed hit and run and claims he didn’t see them.
The two young ladies from Menen and Wevelgem were on a city trip in Rome on Saturday 8 October and were in a taxi on the A24, an approach road to the center, when something went wrong around 10.10 pm. A serious accident occurred, in which two males in their forties were injured. Jessy and Wibe wanted to help.
They exited the taxi and got onto the highway. There they were mowed off the road with a huge bang by another car, a Smart. The driver committed a hit-and-run. The car was found a little further along the side, but the driver fled. Hours later, police were able to arrest the man in a meadow a few miles from the accident.
“It was dark, I really didn’t see them,” Francesco Moretti (53) told the police. That was hard to believe for relatives of the victims. “There are lampposts, how could the driver not have seen them?” they wonder.
After the accident, Italian media already wrote that the driver was under the influence of alcohol and drugs. The results of the drug test may explain why the Italian said he didn’t notice anything.
“Total lack of clarity”
According to investigating judge Maria Gaspari, at the time of the blow, Moretti was in a state of “total lack of clarity” – completely away from the world. The drug test therefore gave positive results for cocaine, cannabis, opiates (eg heroin or morphine), methadone (strong painkiller) and benzodiazepines or benzos (medicines with a calming and relaxing effect).
Despite the varying effects of such a drug cocktail, according to the investigating judge, it is “absolutely inconceivable that the suspect did not realize that he hit the victims. The hit-and-run and his escape when he got out of his car are proof of that,” said Maria Gaspari. The investigating judge believes that Moretti was driving 80 to 90 km/h at the time of the crash, while only 70 km/h is allowed.
Francesco Moretti (53) has been temporarily detained in Regina Coeli, the largest prison in Rome. He is charged with the double fatal collision, with the aggravating circumstances the hit-and-run, driving under the influence of drugs and driving without a valid driver’s license.
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