Pensioner's hotel scalding death could have been prevented

Yahoo

30-07-2025

The death of a pensioner who was fatally scalded after being trapped in a Perthshire hotel room bath could have been avoided, an inquiry has ruled.
Wallace Hunter died at the Pitlochry Hydro in 2019 after being trapped in the bath, while guests and emergency services tried to smash in the door.
A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) found that the failure of safety components in the unmaintained bath tap caused Mr Hunter to accidentally discharge scalding water into the bath in which he was lying.
The hotel is under new ownership following the collapse of Specialist Leisure Group in 2020.
Mr Hunter's family said the judgement was "the most difficult thing we have ever had to read".
His son Keir previously described the 90-minute effort to rescue his father as "a horror story."
Efforts to help the 75-year-old from Eaglesham, East Renfrewshire, were hampered by the door opening outwards and being bolted from the inside.
Sheriff John MacRitchie ruled that Mr Hunter's death could have been avoided if there had been annual maintenance of the bath tap and "a more formal analysis of guest complaints about the discharge of excessively hot water in the hotel bathrooms."
The sheriff said: "These defects on the balance of probabilities contributed to the death and the accident resulting in the death of Mr Hunter.
"It is reasonable to infer that the lack of, not just annual, but any maintenance of the tap and its components did in fact contribute to the death."
The sheriff added that the fitting of a bathroom door lock release, operable from the bedroom, would have allowed emergency access to the bathroom to remove Mr Hunter from the water and could also have prevented his death.
The inquiry heard that all bathrooms at the hotel with outward-opening doors have now had their locks removed completely.
My dad died after being scalded in a hotel bath
Inquiry into man's death after hotel bath scalding
Mr Hunter was staying at the hotel with his wife Janice at the time of the incident in December 2019.
He was found to have suffered third-degree burns to 83% of his body after fire crews finally managed to break down the door.
The inquiry heard that a Health and Safety Executive investigation found that the mixer tap in the bathroom was more than 30 years old.
Its temperature control was "very sensitive", and it did not satisfactorily isolate the hot water when the cold water shut off.
The inquiry heard that a number of complaints about the controls, high temperatures, "boiling hot" showers or lack of cold water were recorded in the hotel maintenance log in the nine months leading up to Mr Hunter's death.
In a joint statement issued by Thompsons Solicitors Scotland, Mr Hunter's son Keir and his daughter Kimberley said: ''The sheriff's judgement is the most difficult thing we have ever had to read.
"It describes in full detail our dad's excruciating and drawn-out final moments but also shines a light on the fact that his death could and would have been avoided had the hotel used qualified maintenance staff and had the most basic of maintenance regimes in place for its hot water supply.
"The fault which caused our father's death had been complained about by many previous guests and was well known to the the hotel management.
"They ignored these warnings."
Glen Millar, a partner with the legal firm, said: "I have been involved in some of Scotland's highest-profile fatal cases over the years but I fail to recall any where a death has resulted from such a litany of avoidable failures.
"It is clear that what happened to Mr Hunter could have happened to any one of the many elderly guests who stayed at the hotel in the years leading up to this tragedy.
"It is to be hoped that the judgement will now lead to swift settlement of the separate civil action the family have had to raise at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.''