Three construction workers in Ankara’s Sincan district died on Monday when a scaffolding collapsed, once again raising concerns about workplace safety in Turkey, the Birgün daily reported.
The workers — Çetin Buru, 39; his brother Volkan Buru, 34; and their cousin Mertcan Buru, 27 — fell from the 12th floor of the building when the scaffolding surrounding it collapsed. Two occupational safety experts, a company official and the site manager have been taken into custody as part of an investigation.
“The platform wasn’t safe, and this disaster was bound to happen,” said one worker at the same company.
The Ankara branch of the Union of Turkish Engineers and Architects Chambers (TMMOB) issued a statement following the incident, criticizing the government for failing to enforce workplace safety regulations and for insufficient oversight. The statement argued that the lack of political will to protect workers’ lives has turned Turkey into “a graveyard for workers.”
Erol Buru, Mertcan Buru’s father, added that workers had informed the contractor about the poor condition of the platform, but no measures was taken. He said safety nets were missing and that there was no proper lifeline for safety harnesses on the site.
The Ankara Medical Chamber also linked the accident to unsafe working conditions, long hours and lax safety enforcement in the construction sector, emphasizing that improved regulations and their enforcement could prevent such tragedies.
Gökhan Turan, an occupational safety expert from the Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG), emphasized that key safety equipment such as harnesses and nets, which are required by law, were not in place. Turan also said the scaffold, which had been repainted to hide previous damage, was unsafe and contributed to the fatal accident.
People have been suffering from lax work safety standards for decades in Turkey, where workplace accidents are nearly a daily occurrence. In the worst work-related accident in the country’s history, 301 miners died in an explosion in Manisa’s Soma district in May 2014.
A total of 878 workers including 250 employed in construction died in workplace accidents in Turkey in the first half of this year, according to a report by the İSİG.
