It was a needless death. Back in 2009, Katoomba local Shannon O’Dwyer died after falling from a wall beside the Carrington Hotel.
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He and a mate had been at a temporary ice rink set up in front of the hotel and were throwing snowballs at each other. Some apparently hit passing cars and police were alerted.
When the patrol car arrived, Shannon and his mate fled, Shannon through hedges in the hotel’s gardens, his mate the other way.
Shannon, who had been drinking, ran towards the hotel’s car park and climbed a two-metre wall. He then lost his balance and fell over the other side. It was a seven metre drop on to concrete and the 25-year-old died at the scene.
An inquest cleared police of any wrong-doing and coroner Hugh Dillon described Shannon’s case as “death by misadventure”.
But Mr Dillon also recommended that the Carrington “investigate modifying its northern boundary wall, subject to any heritage restrictions, to minimise the risk of that wall being climbed in future”.
More than five years on, the O’Dwyer family is still agitating for action. Shannon’s mother, Gail, said she had made repeated calls to the hotel’s managers.
“I find it very sad that a company as large as the Carrington cannot find the time, money or inclination to put up a simple sign or small fence to save lives when the coroners court has recommended they do so after the unnecessary death of my son.”
A Carrington spokesman told the Gazette that after Shannon’s death it had installed CCTV on the driveway, which is monitored by staff. It also believed that a warning sign might encourage curious people to try to see over the wall and put themselves at risk.
Mrs O’Dwyer and her husband, Rob, moved out of Katoomba to the Central West not long after Shannon’s death.
“Rob was working for the council doing the street cleaning,” Mrs O’Dwyer said. “He was walking past the scene every morning and it was just too much for him.”
One of Shannon’s sisters, Colleen, said she wanted others to avoid the heartache her family had experienced.
“If there’s been a fatal accident, you would think that the Carrington would prevent this happening again to anyone else’s family,” she said.
Mrs O’Dwyer just wants a sign to warn people of the drop on the other side of the wall.
“So many people drink there and go up and down there all the time. It’s going to happen again,” she said.
