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Marriott facing lawsuit over Atlanta revolving restaurant tragedy
The family of a small boy who died in a horrific accident at an Atlanta hotel has filed a lawsuit.
The Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel is facing litigation after five-year old Charles Holt became trapped in a revolving track at the popular 73rd floor Sun Dial revolving restaurant.
He died on April 14 after becoming wedged between a wooden booth and a moving wall as the hotel revolved.
The suit says there was no barrier to stop children getting caught in the ‘pinch point’ and there was no emergency stop mechanism close by.
"The control box that controlled the rotation of the platform was mounted against the ceiling in a separate room away from the pinch point," the lawsuit states.
The restaurant and hotel were negligent in failing to address a ‘longstanding safety hazard.’
"We do not comment on pending litigation," said Jeff Flaherty, senior director of global crisis communications & corporate affairs at hotel owner, Marriott International.
Family attorney Joe Fried detailed the harrowing incident.
"The family was leaving the restaurant together after paying their bill. Charlie was only a few steps ahead. By the time someone could manually stop the rotation, it was too late. Charlie’s head had been pulled into the narrow pinch point and he suffered catastrophic head trauma—right in front of his parents," he said.
The Holt family issued a separate statement saying: "The family has filed this lawsuit to set the record straight about what happened and to make sure, to the best of their abilities that no other family ever has to suffer the same fate. If Marriott had acted responsibly in the face of this known safety hazard, this tragedy would have been prevented."
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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