On the morning of July 20, 1954, a Fiat 639 military vehicle, carrying twenty-one Alpine soldiers aged 21 to 23, fell into an embankment as a result of a roadbed subsidence on the Brescia side; the crash that followed the approximately 150-meter flight instantly caused seventeen deaths. Of the two most seriously wounded, one died the next day from his wounds, for a total of eighteen casualties.
At the time, the track, which lacked guardrails and protections, was considered very risky and its travel was not recommended for trucks; there was also a ban on vehicles with more than 14 passengers, which was not observed. At the site of the accident, the total width of the roadway was 2.30m. The mangled bodies of the Alpine soldiers, belonging to the 6th Regiment, Bolzano Battalion, were transferred to the small church in Ponte di Legno for funeral services. Two memorial plaques were placed to commemorate the tragedy, which still exist today.
