The Russian summer camp where 14 children died in a tragic boating accident has been fined 200,000 rubles ($3000) for "carrying out business activity without state registration or special permit."
The director of the Samozero Park Hotel, Elena Reshetova, and her deputy Vadim Vinogradov, are also accused of "providing services that do not meet safety
requirements, resulting in the death of two or more people," TASS
reported.
Camp managers had sent the group of 47 children on a rafting trip on Lake
Samozero in Russia's northern Karelian Republic on Saturday, June 18, despite local storm warnings. Two of the four boats were overturned when the party was hit
by sudden bad weather, but a rescue mission began the following day after one
survivor raised the alarm at a nearby village. An underage instructor was also among the dead.
The accident turned a spotlight on the summer camp industry, triggering a wave of inspections at facilities throughout the country.
Russian consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor has ordered closure of 43 camps in the last three months, 23 of which were not even opened yet, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the watchdog's head Anna Popova.
"More than 80 percent of our inspections revealed violations," Popova said. "We are continuing the enhanced monitoring of these institutions in order to secure children's safety."
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