Hotelier in court

Hotelier to answer for the deaths of two guests

The two assembly workers fell to their deaths at this house in Linz.

(Bild: Einöder Horst)

After two guests of a hotel in Linz fell to their deaths through a railing from a balcony, the hotelier stood trial on Tuesday. The public prosecutor's office accused him of negligent homicide because he had not carried out the prescribed visual checks. The defense attorney prevailed with his argument that the problem was not visible to the naked eye - acquittal.

It could not be proven that the hotel operator should have recognized the defect in the railing, the judge explained the verdict. However, the acquittal is not legally binding, the public prosecutor's office made no statement and the private party representative lodged an appeal.

What had happened: On the evening of July 7, a group of men were sitting together over several after-work beers on the balcony of a hotel room in the hotel, which primarily serves as workers' accommodation. Two got into an argument, a third tried to mediate and a fight broke out. A 33-year-old German national and a 47-year-old Pole, who had been regular guests at the hotel for years, hit the railing, causing it to break off. Both fell from the second floor from a height of a good seven meters and died of traumatic brain injuries.

"He had the technical expertise"
For the public prosecutor's office, it is clear that the blameless 47-year-old "disregarded care and attention" with regard to the prescribed visual inspections, although he himself would have had the technical expertise to recognize the defect. The accused denied this and pleaded not guilty. The incident was "tragic", said the defense lawyer, "but that does not change the fact that this accident was not the responsibility of the defendant." There is "no question" that the fall protection was inadequate, but he believes that those who built the balcony are to blame. "Those who are responsible for the structural defect are only not in court today because the statute of limitations has expired."

Last appraisal in 2011
No defects were found in the railing during an assessment by official experts in 2011. The defendant took over the hotel in 2016. Since then, he had not made any structural changes and had checked the balcony railings "certainly three times a year", usually together with an employee, he claimed. He had shaken them and everything was "super-stable". There had never been anything to complain about, otherwise he would have renovated it. His lawyer used a panel from the fall protection system, which he had brought with him into the courtroom, to demonstrate that the fatal defect "could not be detected during a visual inspection".