The tragedy occurred on August 1 last year in the Taiynshinsky district. At the EMC Agro LLP pig farm, four workers born in 1966, 1991, 1995 and 2000 died during repair work in an 8-meter sewer well. And if three of them were recognized as victims in the case, then the head of the sewage pumping station, 32-year-old Roman Akhmetzhanov, three months after the start of the investigation of the case, was transferred from victims to suspects. On January 24, the first hearing in the criminal case took place. Along with the deceased, charges were brought against the head of the enterprise’s labor safety and health service.
The indictment states that on August 1, 2023, Akhmetzhanov, without informing the management of the limited liability partnership, neglecting the requirements of the instructions, together with his subordinate employees, who had not undergone unscheduled training, were not provided with equipment for identifying harmful substances and gas masks, began repairing the submersible pump hose located inside the sewer well.
“In the period from 12:28 to 12:35, workers, without completely pumping out the contents of the well, and without using personal protective equipment, except for one worker who was wearing a protective suit and a respirator, took turns going down into the well. As a result, they were poisoned vapors of methane and hydrogen sulfide concentrated in the well, after which, having lost consciousness, they were flooded with manure liquid,” the indictment says.
According to his parents, Roman Akhmetzhanov went to work, as usual, at 7 a.m., talked to his wife at about half past twelve, and then stopped communicating.
“Christina started sounding the alarm at half past one. They say that it was not like he didn’t write, didn’t call for so long. Roma was supposed to leave work at four o’clock in the afternoon. But no one even realized that people didn’t get off their shift, no one did not look until late in the evening. After nine o’clock in the evening we could no longer wait, we began to panic and went to the enterprise. We were not allowed in. After us, the director arrived, and for several hours all the management was on the territory. And only after 12 at night, when we started shouting that we were calling the police, the police arrived and let several relatives into the territory. This was already at one o’clock in the morning. Then the firefighters arrived, they were already getting our children out of the well,” said the mother of the deceased, Klavdiya Akhmetzhanova.
The relatives of the deceased assure that Roman, a week before the tragedy, spoke about the damaged hose and about the order from his superiors to repair it. They do not agree with the conclusions of the investigation that Roman’s team went down into the well without the knowledge of management.
By the way, during a special investigation, the commission revealed a lot of violations in production. In particular, the death well was not completed at all, however, the management of the enterprise decided to start operating the well.
“Two civilian gas masks found at the workers’ workplace at the time of the accident were expired (the period expired in June 2021). There is no information about the issuance of personal and collective protective equipment,” the special investigation report says.
