Hotel owners to improve safety after teen death
OWNERS of the Magaluf apartment block where a Welsh teenager died last week after falling from a walkway will be installing transparent panels to increase safety.
Tom Channon, 18, was the third young person to die after plunging from a walkway at the same apartment block in Mallorca.
Mr Channon, from Rhoose, near Barry, is understood to have fallen from a 65ft raised walkway at the Eden Roc apartment complex in the early hours of last Thursday morning after becoming separated from his group on a night out.
A spokesman for law enforcement agency Guardia Civil in Mallorca said transparent panels will be installed along the walkway, which is on the building’s sixth floor and connects to a street, to increase safety.
Calvia council said there have been four deaths in Magaluf so far this year caused by plunges, three of whom have been from the UK. A council spokesman said: “Eden Roc is a private building which has been there for 40 years.
“The council has asked the residents’ committee that measures are taken to improve security immediately by preventing access to the area so that measures that guarantee security can be adopted.”
Meanwhile, Mr Channon’s father has visited the spot where his son died and called for the death not to be in vain.
John Channon told ITV news yesterday: “It’s just heartbreaking coming back to see this, I think it’s something we had to do, we had to understand where Tom spent his last moments, but it’s just so tragic. When you look at it, it never needed to happen, quite clearly if something had been done after the last accident this would never have happened.
“I think we feel an insult to Tom, it’s an insult to what happened to Tom and his memory that five days on nobody has even been back to lock the gate to make some attempt to prevent this happening again. This is a real danger, it’s a real hazard and you could lose your life here and I think it’s the responsibility of tour operators.
“I think it is the responsibility of hotels, I think it’s the responsibility of everyone involved really to try and get that message across. Tom didn’t die in vain if we can get this message across.”
Earlier this week, John and his wife Ceri paid tribute to their son, saying he was a “gentle, kind and generous young man”.
The Spanish police spokesman said the Mr Channon was found by an employee in the building and that police are still investigating his death.
Last month 20-year-old Thomas Hughes, from Wrexham, also died after falling from a balcony in the same hotel. He was staying at a nearby hotel and investigators say he may have mistaken Eden Roc for his own accommodation.
In April, 19-year-old Natalie Cormack, from West Kilbride, Ayrshire, was killed while trying to climb from one balcony to another.She had been working in a bar in the resort, and Spanish police believe she may have been trying to get into her flat after forgetting her keys.