{"id":459619,"date":"2025-09-29T05:22:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T05:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/459619\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T05:22:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T05:22:13","slug":"prime-ministers-message-to-liverpool-family-after-15-year-old-boys-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/459619\/","title":{"rendered":"Prime Minister’s message to Liverpool family after 15-year-old boy’s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gabriel Santer was just 15 when he died after falling from the top of the Q Park multi-story car park\"JohnnyJohnny Santer and his son Gabriel, who died after falling from a multi-story car park in Liverpool <\/p>\n

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said “we are listening” in response to calls for a change in the law after the tragic death of a much-loved Liverpool teenager. Gabriel Santer was just 15 when he died after falling from the top of the Q Park multi-story car park in Hanover Street in October 2020.<\/a><\/p>\n

Since his son’s devastating death, Gabriel’s dad Johnny Santer has been campaigning for a change in the law<\/a> around the height of safety barriers on the top floors of multi-story car parks. He feels his son’s death and many others could have been prevented if these barriers were higher.<\/p>\n

Current laws state that the pedestrian edge restraints at multi-story car parks must reach a height of just 1.1m. Johnny has repeatedly told car park operators<\/a> that while they may be operating within the law, their failure to raise the height of these barriers may be contributing to more people falling to their deaths.<\/p>\n

The law he is campaigning for <\/a>is known as Gabe’s Law, named after his son, who was known to many as Gabe. The law would see the minimum legal height of guarding at multi-story car parks increase from 1.1m to 2.7m.<\/p>\n

\"KeirKeir Starmer was asked about the campaign for Gabe’s Law during a visit to the ECHO office (Image: Iain Watts\/Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

The proposed Multi-Storey Car Parks (Safety) Bill – to give its full title – was first put forward in Parliament by Johnny’s local MP Maria Eagle but is now being led on by Bootle<\/a> MP Peter Dowd, who recently raised the matter at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs).<\/p>\n

Sir Keir is in Liverpool this week for his party’s annual conference and on Saturday he visited the ECHO office to speak to local school pupils<\/a> about a range of topics. He also sat down to face questions from the ECHO.<\/p>\n

As part of this, we asked him about the campaign for Gabe’s Law and whether his government can look at the change that Johnny and others are calling for.<\/p>\n

Responding, the Prime Minister said: “Yes we can look at it. We need to find the right vehicle, the right way to do whatever can be done.<\/p>\n

“It was raised with me in PMQs and I expressed my concern at the time. It is a terrible case and to his family and friends devastating and to all those campaigning on it.”<\/p>\n

He added: “We need to find the right way to do it but certainly we are listening.”<\/p>\n

Mental health support<\/p>\n

Helplines and support groups<\/strong><\/p>\n

The following are helplines and support networks for people to talk to, mostly listed on the NHS Choices website<\/a><\/p>\n