A court in Lipetsk delivered a verdict in a criminal case on the death of a pensioner as a result of an icicle falling. The accused was sentenced to restraint of liberty for a period of 1 year and 6 months, and was also fined 420 thousand rubles. This was announced on Thursday, August 6, at the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Lipetsk Region.
The investigation established that on the evening of February 4, 2019, a block of snow that fell from the roof of the balcony located on the fifth floor of residential building No. 94 on Deputatskaya Street injured the 78-year-old pensioner. She was taken to a hospital where she died the next day. Forensic experts concluded that the cause of death was a fracture of the spine and a head injury.
Also, law enforcement officers found that the balcony visor is a structure that was installed by the owner of the apartment without permission, its maintenance is not the responsibility of public utilities, and the owner is obliged to monitor its condition himself. At the same time, representatives of utilities notified the tenant of this apartment about the need to clean the visor from snow and ice.
Thus, a resident of Lipetsk was found guilty of committing a crime under Part 1 of Art. 109 of the Criminal Code (“Causing death by negligence”).
On March 11, it was reported that in Irkutsk, a seven-year-old girl received a head injury when an icicle fell on her. It was noted that the tenant did not comply with the order to clean the roof from snow and icicles.