Following the crane accident that occurred in Saudi Arabia, King Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman bin Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud has ordered the families of the victims be compensated.
On 11 September 2015, a crawler crane toppled over onto the Masjid al-Haram, the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. 118 people were killed and 394 injured which included some Nigerians. Six Nigerians died while four were missing. The city was preparing for the Hajj pilgrimage.
The payment are as follows;
1. SR1,000,000 ($267,000,N53 million)to the family of each person killed in this accident;
2. SR1,000,000 to each injured whose injury resulted in permanent disability;
3. SR500,000 ($134,000, N26 million) to each of the other injured.
According to SPA, such payment would not deprive the families of the deceased as well as the injured from the right to claim for private right before the competent judicial authorities.
The king also issued directives to host two family members of the deceased as the king’s guests to perform Hajj next year.
“The injured who cannot perform Haj this year can perform Hajjnext year as the king’s guests. The families of the injured who stay in hospitals for treatment shall be granted visit visas to take care of the injured during the remaining period of Hajj and return back to their country,” the royal court said.
The king upon reviewing the report of the Accident Investigation Committee, which suggested negligence on the part of the Saudi Binladin Group, concluded that it found an “absence of criminal suspicion.”
The report said “the main reason for the accident is the strong winds while the crane was in a wrong position.”
Some 111 people were killed and 331 injured when the giant crane being used in the expansion project at the Grand Mosque toppled and crashed into a portion of the mataf (circumambulation area) around the holy Kaaba on Sept. 11.
Pending completion of the investigation, all members of the Board of Directors of Binladin Group, as well as Bakr bin Mohammed bin Ladin and senior executives in the group and others connected with the project are banned from leaving the kingdom, said the royal court order.