Family to be paid around 400,000 liras for Soma mine disaster

MANİSA – Doğan News Agency

A file picture taken on May 14, 2014 shows rescuers carrying out dead miners after an explosion and fire in a coal mine in the western Turkish province of Manisa. AFP Photo

A local court has ruled that a mine’s owner and a state institution pay 395,000 Turkish Liras to the family of a miner who was one of the 301 miners killed in an 2014 accident in a coal mine in the Aegean district of Soma in 2014. 

A compensation case opened by relatives of a miner killed in Turkey’s the worst ever mining accident has thus been concluded for the first time. A local court has ruled the Soma Coal Mine Company, owner of the small town mine, and Turkish Coal Enterprises (TKİ) to pay a total of 395,000 liras to the family of Özay Eren, 36. 

The ruling fined the two organizations 75,000 liras for each of Eren’s parents and 35,000 liras for each of Eren’s seven siblings.

In the May 13, 2014, disaster, 301 miners died of carbon monoxide poisoning after an explosion in a Soma coal mine in the Manisa province.

Sercan Okur, the family’s lawyer, said he had opened the case only on behalf of the miner’s parents and siblings. The family has opened a separate case for the miner’s widow and children. The family has demanded compensation only for the non-pecuniary damages.

On Oct. 22, an expert report prepared by seven experts from Istanbul Technical University stated that the owner of the mine and state institutions responsible for mining facilities, including the Labor and Social Security Ministry, were responsible for the tragedy. 

The report stated that the Soma Coal Mine Company was 70 percent responsible for the incident at the mine, TKİ was 15 percent responsible, the General Directorate of Mining Affairs (MİGEM) was 10 percent culpable while the Labor and Social Security Ministry was 5 percent responsible.

The report stated that the Soma Coal Mine Company was at fault for forcing production, increasing production in an uncontrolled manner by not providing the necessary technical infrastructure, not conducting sufficient investments, not implementing the necessary work safety measures, not conducting a thorough risk analysis, not providing occupational health and safety and vocational training in accordance with regulations; not fulfilling internal inspections within the company as necessary; not ventilating the mine properly and not solving outstanding problems. 

Experts stated that carbon monoxide masks suitable for the mine were not provided and that that the masks that did exist were too few in number for all the miners.