An inquest jury has recommended that hotels fit child-proof locks to elevated windows following the accidental death of a three-year-old boy at Jurys Inn, Limerick.
The inquest in Limerick heard that the boy, Michael Gammell, from Boherbue, Rathkeale, Co Limerick, became separated from his mother at the hotel on November 16th.
He subsequently fell to his death from a fifth-floor window. The youngest of a family of five, he and his parents had stopped at the hotel on their way home from Shannon Airport.
Mrs Jean Gammell said she last saw her son alive shortly before 5 p.m. He had been laughing and smiling and running around. He went over to a lift, pressed the button and got in.
The doors of the lift closed before she could get to him. She pressed the door button but it did not open and she ran to the first floor where she again pressed the button. A staff member told her the lift would go up and come down before opening.
A receptionist, Ms Audrey Griffin, said she had been asked by a woman if the closed circuit TV cameras worked because her boy had got lost.
An American missionary told the inquest he was walking in the street outside when he heard a shout and saw the boy hanging from a window by his hands.
Mr Philip Monson said he ran towards the hotel but the boy had already started falling, He and a colleague then alerted the reception staff.
The hotel manager, Mr Derek McDonagh, tried to revive the boy with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but he was pronounced dead at the city's Mid-Western Regional Hospital.
A pathologist, Dr Peter Faul, told the inquest the child died from multiple skull fractures as a result of the fall. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.