Liverpool’s largest hotel must pay a £135,000 penalty after a visitor drowned in its swimming pool.
Madhav Cherukuri, who had borrowed a friend’s pass to go for a swim, was discovered unconscious at the bottom of the Adelphi Hotel’s Spindles health club pool on 30 August 2006. The lifeguard had been in another room.
Cherukuri was dragged from the pool and two nurses who were visiting the health club attempted to revive him using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but it was too late to save him.
Though there were no witnesses to the drowning, other swimmers said Cherukuri had been holding his breath under water and he may have been at the bottom of the pool for up to 20 minutes before he was found.
A Liverpool City Council investigation revealed the hotel, which has more than 400 rooms, had carried out a risk assessment in 2003 that identified the danger of drowning in the swimming pool, but failed to flag up the need for a lifeguard to supervise the pool constantly.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that in the months leading up to the incident there had been no lifeguard on duty on at least 14 occasions and lifeguards at the health club received no refresher training.
Britannia Adelphi Hotel admitted breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act, for failing to ensure a customer’s safety.
The hotel was fined £65,000 and ordered to pay £70,000 in costs.
