The families of 26 people who died in a May 3 accident on Line 12 of the Mexico City Metro system will receive compensation of almost 2 million pesos, more than double the amount previously announced.
The Mexico City government announced Saturday that the families will receive a total of 1.92 million pesos (US $96,800) and outstanding money will be paid this week.
Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum previously announced that families of people who died in the accident – caused by the collapse of an overpass on the elevated section of Line 12 – would receive a total of 700,000 pesos (US $35,300): 650,000 pesos from Metro operator STC and 50,000 pesos from the Mexico City government.
The payout from the STC was raised to 870,000 pesos per family and the Mexico City government’s Executive Commission for Attention to Victims (CEAVI) will contribute an additional 1 million pesos.
“We will send the notification and in the course of this week we will begin to deliver the amount of this additional 1 million pesos,” CEAVI chief Armando Ocampo told a press conference.
He said that 23 of the 26 families have already received 870,000-peso payments from the STC. The city is also providing educational scholarships and jobs to family members of people who were killed or injured in the Metro disaster.
Lawyers for victims’ families said last month they would seek compensation payments of tens if not hundreds of millions of pesos. Cristopher Estupiñán, a lawyer with the Nuevo León law firm Carbino Legal, said he and The Webster Law Firm of Houston, Texas, would seek large payments for their clients via legal action in the United States.
The firms intend to sue the three companies that built Line 12: Grupo Carso, owned by billionaire businessman Carlos Slim, Grupo ICA of Mexico and Alstom of France, all of which have offices in the U.S.
Preliminary investigation results indicate the accident was caused by construction flaws in the structure supporting the elevated section of the line. Slim rejected that finding last week but nevertheless committed to covering the costs of repairing the line.
“I’m convinced that it didn’t have defects from the start,” he said.
The final results of an independent inquiry conducted by Norwegian firm DNV are expected later this year.
With reports from Reuters and Milenio
