22:44, 3 February 2026

Another car crash into a canal in Makhachkala has led to a criminal investigation.

Officials from the Makhachkala administration and the housing and utilities department are under investigation for negligence following an incident involving a car that drove into the October Revolution Canal. City residents have repeatedly requested that the road be made safe after numerous incidents of cars falling into the canal.

The Investigative Department for Makhachkala's Leninsky District has opened a criminal case for negligence by officials , the Investigative Committee for Dagestan announced today.

According to investigators, officials from the Makhachkala city administration and the Makhachkala Housing and Utilities Department, while improperly performing their duties to improve the area and ensure road safety, failed to install barriers along the October Revolution Water Canal.

The October Revolution Canal (KOR) was built in 1923. It originates from the Sulak River near Kizilyurt and ends in Izberbash, passing through the Kizilyurt, Kumtorkalinsky, and Karabudakhkentsky districts and Makhachkala. The canal is approximately 140 kilometers long. The KOR is the main water supply for Makhachkala and Kaspiysk, although it was created for agricultural land reclamation, and it receives sewage and stormwater runoff.

As a result of official inaction, dangerous conditions have been created for road users. This has led to frequent traffic accidents, including vehicles falling into the water canal.

A comprehensive criminal investigation is currently underway to establish all the circumstances of the incident, the department said in a statement.

The water canal, built during the Soviet era for irrigation and water supply, stretches 12 km across the city limits of Makhachkala. Its banks in the Leninsky district are narrow, without slopes or protective barriers for 2.5 km. Speed limits here reach 60 km/h, and lighting is minimal. According to the Dagestan State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, at least seven accidents involving falls into the canal have occurred since 2023, two of which were fatal. The total damage from damaged vehicles exceeded 15 million rubles, Kommersant reported.

Car falls into the KOR have occurred repeatedly. For example, on February 4, 2024, a passenger car driven by a 23-year-old Makhachkala resident fell into the Oktyabrskaya Revolyutsiya Canal. Two passengers, children aged 10 and 14, were taken to the hospital in serious condition, where one of them died. Following this, authorities reported installing concrete barriers at the most dangerous sections of the canal. Social media users pointed out that the barriers should have been installed before a tragedy and along the entire length of the canal within the city limits.

A car also fell into the canal on February 15, 2022. Instagram users* pointed out then that this was happening due to the lack of fences along the canal and narrow roadway.

On January 11, 2020, a car carrying a family with a four-year-old child fell into the canal. They were helped out of the water by a passing officer police.

On December 24, 2014, a 25-year-old driver and his passenger died in a similar accident. On October 5 of the same year, a Gazelle passenger van fell from a bridge into the canal. The driver and two passengers were rescued.

In Makhachkala, it is impossible to install fences along the canal because access to the water body cannot be blocked, the director of the KOR department stated after another accident in February 2022.

By law, the area next to the KOR is a nature conservation zone, and fences cannot be installed there, Ziyautdin Uvaisov, head of the Housing and Utilities Monitor, explained to the Caucasian Knot in February 2024. "I don't know what the right way out of this situation is; there needs to be a comprehensive solution," he said.

Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/420492