"Don't do it, there are so many people here who love you, I love you": with these words in October 2021 Antonio Denau, the bus driver, managed to prevent a young man from committing suicide by jumping off the Rosello bridge in Sassari. This morning at Palazzo Ducale the mayor Nanni Campus and the president of the public transport company of Sassari Paolo Depperu presented him with a medal for civil valor.

THE FACTS

On 15 October 2021, during a shift on the bus that runs on line 25, the driver, having taken the Rosello bridge, noticed the presence of a young man trying to climb over the balustrade. Antonio Denau's reaction was lightning-fast: he immediately stopped the bus, pulled over safely to the side of the road, and got out of the bus to try and stop it. The young man, who in the meantime had managed to climb over the railing and was standing on the edge of the bridge with his body facing the void, initially didn't seem to listen to Denau's words who, from a safe distance, stretched out his arms to offer him his help. The situation changed in an instant, when Antonio Denau desperately asked the young man to desist because "there are so many people here who love you, I love you".

THE RESCUE

Those simple words but full of enormous meaning opened a breach in the tormented soul of the boy who, at that point, welcomed the help of his rescuer; so with a lightning leap, Antonio Denau reached him, holding him with all the strength he was ever capable of. At that point other people helped to secure the boy, and with the intervention of the police and an ambulance, everything ended positively.