Man injured after fall from hotel window

A man on a Valentine’s weekend at a Kinsale hotel fell 8.2 metres from a third-floor bedroom window as he tried to flick ash from his cigarette, he claimed before the High Court yesterday.

Jason Platt, who said he was flicking the ash away because he was in a no-smoking bedroom, has sued in the High Court claiming he sustained life-changing injuries.

Mr Platt from Liverpool had travelled to Kinsale for a Valentine’s weekend and he and his partner Christine McKenna were staying at the Old Bank House, Pearse Street, Kinsale when he claims the accident took place on February 15, 2009.

The hotel owners claim Mr Platt threw himself from the window of his guest room following a heated argument with Ms McKenna. In evidence before Mr Justice Bernard Barton, Mr Platt, 43, said he had opened the right side of the third-floor window and was smoking and “trying to blow smoke so no alarm would go off”.

“I was leaning towards the window trying to flick cigarette ash away from our window when I lost my balance. All I remember is just going out the window,” he said. He added: “ I remember thinking, am I alive, or am I paralysed?”

The court heard Mr Platt had actually landed on the pitched roof of a post office building below, and it took a number of hours to free him before he was transferred by ambulance to Cork University Hospital.

Mr Platt suffered fractures to his spine, hip and thigh as well as several rib fractures. After three weeks he was transferred to a Liverpool hospital. Mr Platt has sued OBH Luxury Accommodation Ltd with offices at Pearse Street, Kinsale, and company director Ciaran Fitzgerald as a result of the accident in 2009.

He has claimed there was an alleged failure to provide him with a safe hotel room and an alleged failure to have appropriate restraining mechanisms or safety bars fitted to the hotel windows.

As a result of his injuries, Mr Platt has claimed he is unable to live independently and has to use crutches and a wheelchair.

The defendants have denied the claims and contend that Mr Platt threw himself from the window of the guest room and was guilty of contributory negligence and failed to exercise any care for his own safety.

In evidence, Mr Platt said he and Ms McKenna, who was not feeling well, went to a Chinese restaurant and he ordered food. He said she went to the toilet and when she returned she was not happy he was eating her soup and “was in a bit of a mood.”

The case before Mr Justice Barton continues on Tuesday.