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Robert Leitch Site Editor |
An English teacher since 2001, Robert is currently working freelance in St. Petersburg, occasionally travelling to Scandinavia on secret missions ;) The rest of the time, he's maintaining VisaRus and trying to get it recognised as the top EFL site in Russia. |
| Many foreigners enjoy the feeling of living 'on the edge' that comes with life outside the Nanny State, but it's worth heeding the very real dangers posed in a country where public safety is largely disregarded. | ||
Dangers of life on the edge
The following article was translated from 'My Region', a St. Petersburg newspaper, on 11th December 2005. The original article was written by Anastasia Gavrilova and published on the 9th of December. Before continuing, please note that this article contains graphic descriptions of injuries that you may find distressing.
Bureaucratic negligence costs lives
"I walked out of the metro into a thick fog. No voices, no people. It felt as if I had stepped out into a flowerbed, but suddenly I realised that I was up to my knees in boiling water," says Yana Shavrova.
On the 23rd of November, she fell into a trench filled with hot water on the corner of Grazhdanskiy prospect and prospect Prosvescheniya. She jumped out, pulled off her boots and rubbed her legs with snow. According to Yana, there were no barriers around the hole. Doctors tell her she escaped lightly.
"I arrived at the burns unit, and saw a nurse throwing something that looked like a bundle of clothes under a bed. I asked whose they were, and she replied that it was not clothes, but skin from a deceased victim."
Smetlana Smirnova died from burns received at the same place, and Tatiana Demina and Natalya Savchenkova ended up in intensive care. Two weeks later, officials announced that the tragedy was the victims' own fault. As a result, municipal authorities will not be held responsible.
Tatiana Demina's life hangs in the balance
Marina Demina, mother of 24-year-old Tatiana, sits in the corridor of a burns clinic looking at a door with a sign that says ‘intensive care'. Behind the door and to the right is a bath filled with sand. In it lies her daughter. Thousands of jets blow through the sand, bathing Tania with air.
'65 percent' is no longer just a number for Tania's parents. 65 percent of their daughter's body was burned by scalding water.
Mikhail Tarasenko, vice-director of the burns unit, brings a 10-centimetre-thick file containing Tania's notes. On one page is an outline drawing of a human body, shaded in from the feet to the elbows and midriff. "This is the extent of the burns," explains the doctor. No one can say how long Tania will remain in the treatment bath, or whether she will come out alive.
"This is a critical stage. The damaged skin has started to die, creating a high risk of infection. Tania is covered in pus all over. Imagine – the palm is one percent of the body's surface. If you have an infection just in one finger, you already have a temperature. 65 percent of the body is 65 infected palms," says Mikhail Tarasenko.
With reluctance he recalls the story of the woman who died after the tragedy on Grazhdanskiy prospect. "She had burns to 90% of her body. In shock she almost managed to run home. She was literally boiled to death."
Every morning Tatiana's mother goes to the church of Ksenia Blazhennoi, lights a candle and sets off for the burns clinic. "I pull myself together and come out here to help Tania. I know she's she's near, I hear her voice…"
Officials offload blame onto victims and water mains
The public prosecutor has opened a criminal case over the death caused by the ruptured hot water main. The interdepartmental investigating committee, comprising representatives of administration, police and municipal officials, announced that the tragedy was caused by poor visibility and the victims' own carelessness.
TEK reports: "barriers were erected at the site of the ruptured water main. Yana Sharova, like the other three women, didn't see them – otherwise they wouldn't have fallen into the scalding water." Families of the victims have each received 15,000 roubles [approx. $500] from the Kalininskiy region administration. GUP TEK, the company whose water pipes were blamed by officials, paid for hospital treatment.
"I won't stand for this, I'll go to court," says Marina Demina. "Those responsible for this must be made to pay, so that no more people will suffer. How many more mothers will suffer, how many more children."
The municipal system has turned into the arch enemy of Petersburgers. People are killed by water mains, balconies, falling masonry and icicles. No one is held responsible.
Last year, Vika Frolova's parents feared for their daughter's life just as Marina now fears for Tania's. 23-year-old Vika fell into a trench filled with hot water on Karavayskaya street on New Year's Eve. Doctors said that nobody with such injuries could stand a chance of survival. But Vika proved them wrong. She was the only one to survive that time; three died. In the year since, nobody has been held responsible.
A year has also passed since Tatiana Gorbunova was struck by a chunk of falling masonry. The municipal director of the area has moved to a different region. None of the officials responsible has been brought to justice.
Lawyer Alexei Suprunenko says that if it can be proved that a crime has been committed in this tragedy, those to blame can be brought to justice under the statute on "severe consequences caused by negligence, abuse of authority or infringement of safety regulations." The outcome depends on the conscience of the investigator. If he uncovers who was responsible for erecting barriers, and who should have been supervising that person, then a conviction will result.
In the meantime, officials feel that they have got away scot free, and the heating company is sending out notices through the media saying that "citizens are strictly forbidden from approaching sources of steam or escaping water, and disregarding these rules may result in serious injury."
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