Gavino Petretto, the 71-year-old businessman from Porto Torres, died after suffering serious injuries following a serious accident on the morning of September 18, 2025. He was struck by a car while turning his racing bike at the intersection of Via Verdi and Via Dell'Industria.
He had suffered several internal injuries, a serious craniofacial and spinal trauma that had kept him confined to bed in a pharmacological coma for a long time, in the intensive care unit of the Santissima Annunziata, then rehabilitation at the Montecatone hospital in Imola, where he died during the night .
He had started smiling again, with the hope of taking his life back. Nine months later, this morning came the news that shocked the Turritan community. His life had come to a halt, leaving his family and friends stunned. What remains are the memories of a man endowed with great professional skills and human qualities, a technician and manager of construction sites and industrial installations, who knew how to approach life with lightheartedness and humor, capable of performing great acts of generosity towards others.
That September morning, at 8.20, the terrible crash occurred while he was engaged in one of the many training sessions on his sports bike , in preparation for the Ironman race, one of the most important triathlon competitions in Barcelona.
A great friend, Benedetto Sechi, with whom he shared a passion for the guitar, remembers him. " Gavino was a true Turritan. He liked to say he was an Italian citizen despite himself; he was proudly Sardinian. Just as he was keen to point out that he was born in the poor neighborhood of San Gavino," he says, "he was one of those self-made Turritans, an industrial construction technician with extensive experience abroad, where he managed metalworking companies with hundreds of employees. He was also an excellent entrepreneur in the sector."
His passion for sports, which he discovered after age 50, led him to compete in dozens of triathlons, particularly those of Iroman . A man of many passions, beyond sports, he could build anything with his hands. He was passionate about music, and he was a regular at the De Andrè Civic Music School, where he took guitar lessons, appearing at the final recital every year. "But above all, Gavino was a man of great generosity," adds Benedetto Sechi. "In his later years, he coached disabled children in running, taking them to races. Anyone who acknowledged his immense generosity would scoff and reply, 'I do it because what they give me is much more than I can give them.'"