Five family members of victims of the tragedy that occurred in the canyons in Capitólio (MG) and one survivor went to court for damages amounting to R$ 18 million.
According to the initial petition of the action against the municipality, the value was established “for merely fiscal purposes, since it is impossible to measure the value of a life, let alone 5 lives lost”.
The lawsuit accuses the municipal administration of failing to regulate tourist activity properly, and says that the tragedy could have been avoided had it not been for the “failure in the public service”.
Capitólio City Hall said in a statement that it had not received any notification on the matter. She reiterates that “from the first moment of what happened, she has worked to welcome the victims’ families and ensure that nothing like this ever happens again”.
The municipality also said that once it receives the court notification, it will “act responsibly to deal with the situation”.
In all, ten people died on January 8, 2022, after a rock collapsed in a canyon in the city of Capitólio, Minas Gerais. The stone lost its support and hit boats of tourists who were in the place.
According to firefighters, another 32 people were injured at the time and were treated at hospitals in nearby towns.
Status of families
According to the statements in the petition, compensation would be a form of financial assistance to family members who lost their loved ones who contributed to the family income.
In the case of Thiago Teixeira da Silva Nascimento, the fatal victim in the incident, it is stated that the deceased contributed his minimum wage and fully donated his food ticket of R$300 to his parents.
Júlio Borges Antunes, another fatal victim, was retired and helped his brothers with the bills. In addition to him, Maycon Douglas de Osti received a salary of R$ 3 thousand and paid for the expenses of his mother, who is a domestic worker, and of the grandmother, with whom she lived.
Carmen Pinheiro da Silva, another victim whose family seeks compensation, was a day laborer and with her salary paid the household expenses, while the last victim Camila da Silva Machado was a student, but also worked as a freelancer to help the family.
“The authors are poor people in the legal sense/economyhere and so the declaresm in the form of the Law, emphasizing that the familys raisinm for one severe crisis financial support”, the petition highlights.
Source: CNN Brasil
