OMSK, August 22 (Itar-Tass) - The administration of the Omsk region has begun to pay compensations to victims of the riverboat and barge collision on the Irtysh river, in which six people died.
The administration received the first three applications on Thursday. The money will be transferred later in the day," a representative of the local Ministry of Labor and Social Development told Itar-Tass.
The sum of compensations reaches 5.45 million rubles. Each dead riverboat passenger's family is entitled to 300,000 rubles, the seriously injured passengers will receive 200,000 rubles each and the passengers in satisfactory condition will receive 50,000 rubles each.
Reports on Wednesday said investigators were identifying a group of officials allegedly responsible for the accident, accused of negligence in which the captain of the Polesye-8 riverboat was cleared for duty without a mandatory medical check before its journey.
This led to the tragedy, investigators say, and on Monday, the captain admitted his guilt, saying he had taken his vessel into an oncoming traffic lane causing a collision. He admitted that he had been drunk, and now he is in custody.
The tragedy happened near the village of Novaya Stanitsa on August 17. Six people died, and another 49 were taken to hospital. Some of them are in critical condition. The boat was en route from Omsk to the village of Achair and the barge belonged to the Priboy open joint stock company.