Seven months after a child was electrocuted while grabbing a lighting pole next to a playground in Varna, there is no answer to the question of what caused the incident. The district prosecutor's office refused to open pre-trial proceedings because the child was slightly injured, and the inspection did not find that the pole was under current. The child's mother claims that the causes of the electric shock were eliminated that same evening so that there was no one to blame, BNT recalls.
The incident with Dimitar took place on August 21 last year. The district prosecutor's office in Varna took action 4 days later. They stated that after the incident, an employee of the company that maintains the lighting fixtures arrived at the scene. He found that there was no voltage on the housing. 20 meters away there was a broken junction box with live cables, which was immediately secured.
Maria Ivanova, Dimitar's mother: "Without any documents or photos being prepared for these actions. He simply swept away all traces and data. On August 22, the same employee took new measurements, compiled reports and photographs, and additional intervention was carried out on the box by bridging. Repair and laying in the ground. During these four days – The box has been repaired."
The District Prosecutor's Office informs the parents of the injured child that there is no basis for initiating pre-trial proceedings.
Maria Ivanova, Dimitar's mother: "Since the initial state of the scene was no longer available in an unchanged form due to the actions taken on the ground."
The supervising prosecutor refuses to initiate pre-trial proceedings, since the child received minor bodily injury, there is no evidence of negligent work by a company that maintains the lighting fixtures, or intent on the part of a third party.
Maria Ivanova, Dimitar's mother: "Here we have a bit of Paragraph 22. Namely, no technical expertise has been carried out, because there is simply no pre-trial proceedings. We cannot qualify this act as minor. Or this criminal negligence. Due to the fact that he is alive, the District Prosecutor's Office is preventing pre-trial proceedings from being initiated. Somehow it is unacceptable to me that my son had to die or be seriously injured physically in order for someone to take action again and do the work for which we pay him."
After the incident, the pole was checked several times. It was found that there was no electricity flowing through it. According to the District Prosecutor's Office in Varna, after the incident, all poles around the playgrounds in the “Mladost” area were also measured and no voltage was found on their bodies.
Dimitar is fine, but he is still trying to forget the shock of what he experienced.
Maria Ivanova, Dimitar's mother: "His hand from the wrist down tingles from time to time. Psychologically, it seems like he survived, although we bypass this playground quite far away for understandable reasons. He is living a second life."
The mother of the injured child hopes that no parent will experience a similar incident.
Maria Ivanova, Dimitar's mother: "We still have the picture before our eyes when we saw him after the incident, when his hair was standing up and his eyes were bloodshot, he couldn't say his name. He was shaking and writhing."
For more than 7 months, none of the responsible institutions has an answer to the question of how the child was electrocuted.
Maria Ivanova, Dimitar's mother: "These incidents are increasing, in which various unfortunate incidents especially happen to children, but there is never anyone to blame. The institutions are passing the buck among themselves. There is something rotten in this system – it doesn't work."
And the Varna Municipality stated that the lighting fixtures are checked every week. After the incident, the damaged distribution boxes on the street lighting poles were secured. Their grounding was also checked.
Maria Ivanova, Dimitar's mother: How then did my son get electrocuted? Which one of them doesn't work? Where is the mistake? Who is to blame?"
The Varna Municipality told BNT that every week the maintenance company and a representative of the district administration inspect the condition of all parts of the street lighting network in the "Mladost" district. According to the institutions, there is no one to blame. And a 12-year-old child could have lost his life playing on a playground.