San Cristobal, DR.- This Thursday the Public Ministry presented a formal accusation and requested the opening of a trial against those accused of the burst occurred on August 14, 2023 in a plastic factory in Saint Christopher.
They lost their lives because of this. about 38 people and Dozens were injured, as well as nine buildings destroyed and several homes affected.
The accusation was filed in the Second Court of Instruction of the Judicial District of San Cristóbal against the owners of the plastic factory; Edward Armando Vidal Garrido, Maribel Sandoval Almánzar, Mercedes Altagracia Vidal and the company Vidal Plast SRL, where the strong explosion with shock waves that caused the accident originated.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office indicates that, as a result of its clumsiness, imprudence, inadvertence, negligence and failure to observe regulations planned for commercial activities of plastic storage, health and environmental issues, the defendants caused the fatal explosion that occurred at 3:10 p.m., on August 14, 2023, at the intersection of Padre Ayala and Francisco J. Peynado streets, (Antiguo Mercadito), in the province of San Cristóbal.
In the account of the facts, the file states that the failure to comply with the regulations committed by the accused began to give warning signs on the day March 18, 2023, Five months before the accident, in the morning, Manuel Hernández and his workers were doing metalwork in what was once his office.
He indicates that while he was carrying out said work, a spark jumped towards the area where the plastic storage that the company Vidal Plast, SRL had there was located, an action that unleashed a Chemical reaction of dense irritating smoke and heat which caused burns to one of the employees.
He explains that members of the Fire Department of this city arrived at the scene of the accident, who after identifying that they were not facing a fire caused by electricity, but by an unknown substance, managed to determine that the trigger of said explosion was the chemical named Autofin-Luporox A 70S (Organic Peroxide 5.2), which is used in the plastic and rubber industries for the manufacture and modification of polymers, which have various uses in everyday life.
This chemical enhances the material to be diluted, making it more useful for the purposes to which the accused company was dedicated, the indictment states.
He points out that, due to the imprudence of handling and storing in a closed environment without conditioning, next to plastic waste, the August 14, 2023 in the great explosion that resounded in the city of San Cristóbal, since the gas that surrounded the place as a result of the Organic Peroxide stored there for years, found its point with the centered and excessive accumulation that the place kept.
The extensive document is supported by 128 pieces of evidence, testimonials, documentaries, expert reports and audiovisuals against those accused of the explosion, who have coercive measures for one year, with a declaration of a complex case, imposed on September 5, 2023.
He Public Prosecutor’s Office accuses them of violating articles 319 of the Penal Code, 153, paragraph 2, of the General Health Law 42-01, and 175, paragraph 7, 176, 183 and 187 of Law 64-00 on the Environment and Natural Resources.
