Lessons Must Be Learnt From Corfu Deaths

A travel watchdog has told Radio Aire that lessons must be learnt from the deaths of two West Yorkshire children in a hotel in Corfu.

Frank Brehany is the Consumer Director for Holiday Travel Watch, he said:

“This isn’t just about carbon monoxide, this is about the mass illnesses in hotels, the accidents that occur and so on…If you are subscribing to a tick box method of health and safety, you’re going to have to look again now, particularly after this case.

“I think it’s going to ascend shockwaves through the industry, tour operators are going to have to rethink their strategy and their structure about how they assess these properties in the first place”.

An inquest jury concluded yesterday that Thomas Cook breached their duty of care''.

It comes after a two-week hearing heard that Bobby and Christi Shepherd, aged six and seven, died at the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel when they were overcome by fumes from a faulty boiler.

The children were on a half-term break with their father, Neil, and his partner, now wife, Ruth, when the tragedy happened in October 2006.

The jurors at Wakefield Coroner's Court had already been told by West Yorkshire Coroner David Hinchliff that it had been agreed the only conclusion they could come to was unlawful killing.

The coroner said he will make a series of recommendations to the holiday industry at later date.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Thomas Cook said that everyone at the company was ‘shocked and deeply saddened’ by the deaths and that it recognises that the pain caused by the accident ‘will never go away’.

They went on to say that the systems which were in place then have been updated and that the health and safety of customers ‘is of paramount importance’.