Another Construction Worker Dies In Jobsite Accident

A construction worker was killed in İstanbul's Kadıköy district after scaffolding from the 14th story of a residential building fell on top of him on Friday.

Sezer Karakaş (22) was killed on site after heavy construction material fell on him, making Karakaş the eighth construction worker to have died following a work accident in the past week in Turkey.

Karakaş was stuck under piles of sheeting and steel parts from the fallen scaffolding. His fellow workers, who were trying to dismantle the scaffolding, found him lying under the rubble. An ambulance arrived at the scene of the accident but Karakaş was already dead, eyewitnesses said. Shocked by the scene, Karakaş' coworkers were seen crying. Police have commenced an investigation into the accident.

In similar incidents, on Oct. 17, a worker fell to his death at a construction site in İstanbul's Şişli district, where another 10 workers were killed in an elevator crash last month. Another worker died on Thursday after the mezzanine floor of a building under construction collapsed in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.

‘Blood money necessary'

In September, 10 laborers were killed while working on the Torun Center luxury residential tower in İstanbul after a faulty elevator plummeted some 30 stories to the ground. Eight families of the deceased workers decided to drop their complaints against the Torunlar GYO company this week after the firm offered them financial compensation.

“We believe that blood money is a necessary thing,” Labor Minister Faruk Çelik said in a comment to reporters on Thursday. Financial compensation to victims' families in exchange for the dropping of their criminal complaints is known colloquially in Turkey as “blood money.” Çelik said that such payments are necessary, particularly when a tragedy results in the creation of widows and orphans. The family of Murat Usta was reportedly offered TL 500,000, an offer that was rejected. The family subsequently fired a lawsuit against the company requesting TL 820,000 in damages.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)