A court has found the evidence gathered by the investigating bodies of the Russia’s Investigative Committee for the Moscow Region sufficient to convict a 61-year-old director of aquapark. He was found guilty of a crime under paragraphs “b” and “c” of part 2 of article 238 of the RF Penal Code (provision of services not meeting safety standards for life and health of clients, meant for children aged under 6, entailing death of a person by negligence).
The court and investigators have found that on 23 February 2012, a small child and his mother, who came in an aquapark in Mytishchi were not informed that there were dangerous places in the pools. As a result the boy walked in the pool for children, but ended up in the one for adults. 24 seconds later he started to drown. An emergency team took him to hospital, but sometime later the boy died of mechanical asphyxia as a result of drowning.
The investigation found that the director of the aquapark had not ensured that the depth of the swimming pool met the standards set for the pools for children aged under 7. The swimming area of the aquapark is arranged so that children could freely move from the pool for children up to 0.4 meter deep to the one for adults up to 1.6 meters deep. A technical analysis confirmed this conclusion.
Additionally, the director failed to train the staff of the facility, which is required by law. Nobody of the staff, including instructors, knew how to provide life safety when they started working. When the director approved their job descriptions, he did not put there any instructions on how to provide life safety of the clients. In fact, he put the entire responsibility for the children’s safety on their parents.
According to the laws there has to be a first-aid post in the aquapark. However, there was none, there was no medic there either. This way, the clients could not have emergency medical aid provided in time.
The court has given the director of the aquapark a suspended sentence of 3 years and a fine of 100 thousand rubles. In addition, the court ruled to pay 500 thousand rubles of damages.
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