THE DUBLIN city coroner issued a warning yesterday about the danger of falls from unlocked windows in flats, apartments and other dwellings after an inquest on a baby who fell from a bedroom window in Galway.
The grieving mother of a oneyear-old boy who sustained fatal head injuries when he fell from a second-floor apartment window said they had no key or other way to lock the window.
Oskars Dauksts of Lydon Court, Bóthar Irwin, Galway, was just one year and four months when he fell 30ft from a bedroom window of a rented apartment off Eyre Square on the morning of March 27th, 2010. The inquest was held in Dublin because the child died after being transferred to Temple Street Children’s Hospital.
The baby’s mother Agita Daukste was tired as Oskars had not gone asleep until late the previous night and she fell asleep while her son was playing on the bedroom floor.
She woke a short time later to the sound of banging at her door and found that Oskars wasn’t in the bedroom and that the window, which had been closed before she fell asleep, was now open.
Ms Daukste told the coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, that she always made sure the window was closed but that there was no key to lock the window and so it was easy to open.
The bed was against the wall by the window and Oskars tried to look out the window when he was standing on the bed, she said.
She had hung balloons to the left of the window to distract him from the window.
Ms Daukste’s boyfriend, Ashish Kumar, who is from India and who also lived in the apartment, said they were not provided with a key and they did not ask for one.
He said they are looking at houses at the moment and in many of them there are no keys.
Dr Farrell recorded a verdict of accidental death.
He said that in the public interest he was going to write to the national landlords’ representative association in Ireland, the Irish Property Owners’ Association, and to the apartment owner, drawing their attention to what was said at the inquest in relation to the key, and in general in relation to the importance of providing a locking facility in apartments and other dwellings, particularly when the tenants are the parents of young children.
“We have had several inquests where similar incidents have occurred – where children have fallen from windows of apartments and other properties where the window wasn’t secured properly,” said the coroner.