Miner killed in accident due to negligence in Edirne, family claims

EDİRNE

Ahmet Arslan, 43, died inside a coal mine when the chain connecting the tramcars broke.

One miner was killed in the northwestern province of Edirne on Jan. 4, with alleged negligence causing the first death in a mining accident in Turkey in 2015.

Ahmet Arslan, 43, died inside a coal mine when the chain connecting the tramcars broke.

Yalçın Arslan, the brother of the killed miner, said he lost his life due to negligence and added that he would file a complaint against the mine owners.

“The mine is supposed to be for fortification, but my brother’s colleagues said they were digging the mine for coal production. My brother died because of negligence,” said Yalçın Arslan, Anadolu Agency reported.

The mine was operated by a private company in the Karapürçek village. The body of Ahmet Arslan, a father of three, was sent to forensics department and then delivered to his family.

Yücel Rusçuk, another miner who survived the accident because he was in the front tramcars, said he was lucky to survive.

Rusçuk also said the chain had to be changed every six months according to the security measures, but none of the chains had been changed for three years.

Yılmaz Küçükköse, who also survived the Jan. 4 accident, said another accident had taken place in the same mine when a chain was broken three years ago, and this was the last time the firm had changed the ropes. An investigation has been opened into the incident.

On Nov. 13, 2014 three miners were severely wounded with burns on their bodies due to an explosion in a mine in the Uzunköprü district of Edirne.

Nezi Ören, 48, his brother Seyfi Ören, 44, and his son Muhammet Ören, 25, were wounded in the explosion.

Turkey experienced its worst ever industrial disaster in May 2014, after a fire erupted in a mine owned by the Soma Coal Mine Company in the western province of Manisa’s town of Soma, killing 301 workers.

Eight people, including the CEO, general manager and operating manager of the Soma Coal Mine Company, were arrested as part of in an investigation that was launched following the disaster. However, a Manisa court rejected the indictment prepared against 45 suspects, including eight under arrest, finding it “insufficient,” on the grounds that the document was prepared before all the complainants had testified, and before the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey’s (TÜBİTAK) report on the sensors in the mine had been delivered.