Company ignored warnings about falling elevator, workers say

Workers at a job site in central Istanbul at which 10 of their colleagues were killed after an elevator plunged from the 32nd floor have accused the construction company of ignoring all their warnings despite being informed about the continual problems with the lift.

Emrah Acar, one of those tasked with looking after the elevator at the Torun Center site in Mecidiyeköy, told daily Vatan they had been using very rudimentary tricks to keep it functioning for more than two months after a major breakdown in the device’s braking mechanism.

“The elevator was going off the rails and whenever it derailed, we would press the ‘emergency stop’ button and slam the cabin into the walls to make it stop… I have been telling officials for two months that the braking mechanism was not functioning. If they would have listened, this disaster would not have happened,” Acar said.  

Acar also questioned how Hıdır Genç, a worker that only started working at the site five days ago and perished in the accident, was named as the person responsible for the elevator during the evening shift. “I had told him to press the emergency stop button. I believe he didn’t press the button. Or maybe he did, but the elevator didn’t stop,” he said.

The accident at the glitzy skyscraper in one of Istanbul’s busiest areas prompted a huge wave of indignation that was exacerbated by the police’s typically heavy-handed crackdown on mourners, many of who marched to the site shouting “murderers.”

The unapologetic haste of the constructor company, Torunlar Holding, to lay the blame on workers has produced fury against both the government and the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality for facilitating companies in constructing huge blocks and...