Penza, 30 May 2016. PenzaNews. The court found a gas tank refill assistant, 28, and a gas station manager, 40, guilty of violating the safety rules, which led to an incident that left two men dead.

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The sentence to the culprits was announced by the Oktyabrsky Penza city area court on Monday, May 30.

The gas station manager was sentenced to 2 years of custodial restraint, and the gas tank refill attendant received a suspended sentence of 3 years in prison, Lyudmila Fomina, senior assistant of the head of the regional Investigative Committee for media relations, told PenzaNews.

“The court and the investigation found that the aforementioned employees neglected the safety rules that cover dealing with liquefied flammable gases. In particular, the gas tank refill attendant was not blocking the drain pipe valve during the truck-to-tank drain procedure, while the rules instruct to keep the valve in automatic mode that provides for immediate blocking of the passage. In addition, the gas tank was equipped with a Lukoil-Nizhnevolzshkevteprodukt valve that requires to be closed after the refill; however, at the time of the accident, the valve was opened, which led to the tragedy,” she explained.

The violations described above were occurring frequently over a large timespan, yet the gas station manager responsible for security at the location did not halt the works, she added.

“In the evening of 18 July 2015, a gas pipeline at the station was breached after a minibus rolled back on it. As the valve was open, this resulted in a gas leak, which lasted for 5 minutes and eventually led to an explosion and a fire in the vicinity. Two men, 42 and 20, received thermal burns in the explosion and were hospitalized. They soon succumbed to the injuries in spite of the provided medical assistance,” Lyudmila Fomina recounted the incident.

The criminal case spent over 8 months in investigation, with 21 books of case materials, she clarified.

“The cases by damaged parties to Lukoil-Nizhnevolzshkevteprodukt on compensation for moral damages were partially approved. The relatives of the deceased young man, as well as the mother, wife and daughter of the other deceased man, received 800,000 rubles for each party. Moreover, the sister of the latter victim received 200,000 rubles of compensation. The cases for compensation of material damages were dismissed. The court allowed the individuals to seek compensation for material damages through civil lawsuits,” she said.

The sentence has not yet entered into force, Lyudmila Fomina added.