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A teenager fell to his death from a multi-storey car park roof as he was distracted while writing a text message on his mobile phone.
Ryan Robbins had just escorted a couple of unknown girls to their car in Melbourne before walking away with the aim of heading out of the car park with the view to go home.
But the 19-year-old began tapping in a text message to a friend last Friday night and he did not notice the waste-high railing before tripping and falling.
Though it was 1.15am and Mr Robbins - who worked at a meat-processing plant in Colac and had been at a work function and then a nightclub - had been drinking, he was not drunk, according to his grandmother Patricia Schroeter.
In an interview with local radio station 3AW, she said that inadequate safety led to her grandson's death, and called for taller barriers to be mandatory.
She said: '[Ryan] was texting his mate, unfortunately they separated, to find out where they were so he could meet up with them and get in the car and go home.
'Unfortunately, he was watching his phone instead of where he was walking and went over the rail.
'I don't want anyone else to lose their children or to go like this, not if it can be prevented.
'[The barriers are] not high enough. What if there was a little kid in the [car] park and [they] let go of your hand and took off? They could do the same.'
Local regulations insist that Australian buildings require one metre high safety barriers in multi-level venues.
A barrier on a multi-level building must be one metre high, a spokesman for the Australian Building Codes Board told the Sydney Morning Herald.
He said: ‘The building code says if you can fall a metre or more from a walkway or a balcony or a floor then you’ve got to have a metre high barrier to protect you from falling.'
Police have said there were no suspicious circumstances involved in his death and a report is being prepared for the coroner.
Mr Robbins's funeral will be held on Friday - his death has not been referred to Work Safe to investigate and Wilson Parking, who own the car park, refused to comment.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...lling-roof-multi-storey-car-park-texting.html
