Family and friends of Davide Rebellin desperate to find driver who killed him

Davide Rebellin’s mother Brigida Gattere is anxious for the police to find the person who killed her son with their vehicle.

“I hope they find him,” she said in a report from Il Corriere della Sera. “And I hope that if it turns out that he really ran away after killing my son, justice can take its course. No one should die like this.”

Former professional and friend of Rebellin, Filippo “Pippo” Pozzato also wants justice. “I hope they find that truck, I really hope that those who drove it did not notice anything. It would be atrocious, unacceptable if the driver had realized that he had run over Davide and then left as if he had put a cat or a dog underneath, not a man.”

Pozzato, winner of Milan-Sanremo, raced with Rebellin for 15 years and is understandably devastated about the death of his peer.

For Pippo, this is not the first time to lose a fellow pro and friend. In 2017, Italian cyclist Michele Scarponi died while training after a collision from a truck.

Michele Scarponi dies after being struck by van during training ride

The police have begun a search for the driver by using CCTV cameras which are located on a pole in the parking lot of a restaurant in Montebello, Italy.

Rebellin’s brother Carlo Rebellin, has made a plea to the public. He asked that the driver to come and explain the situation so that “we family members can accept any human error but we cannot stand the idea of escape.”

Pozzatto said he had just seen Rebellin racing before his death in the Veneto region, in races that he had organized. His last race was the Veneto cup, which had several gravel and cobbled climbs.

“Before retiring he had participated in the gravel races that I organized. He believed like me that the future of cycling was on dirt roads to escape the traffic that is here today in Veneto.  Some bike paths are dangerous because there is a driveway every 50 m,” Pozzatto said. “It is for him, for Scarponi, for the hundred non-famous cyclists who died this year that we must stop this tragedy.”