Secção infantil pérola (#13)

Young girl dies after fall from nine-storey human tower

Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Monday August 7, 2006
The Guardian
The huge, fragile-looking human towers built by groups from eastern Spain known as castellers were at the centre of controversy at the weekend after a 12 year-old-girl died falling off one.
Mariona Galindo died of head injuries after falling from a nine-storey human tower at her home town of Mataró, north-east Spain. She had been climbing to the higher levels of the human towers for the past two years.

She was reported to have banged her head as she hit people on the bottom level of the tower. Doctors had been battling to save her life for almost two weeks after she was taken to hospital with serious head injuries. She eventually died on Friday. Her death has sparked demands that children involved in the sport be issued with protective helmets.

The castellers, who are often the highlight of local fiestas in the north-eastern region of Catalonia, build towers up to nine stories high made of groups of people standing on one another's shoulders.

Younger, lighter members are positioned higher up the tower, which can reach 10 metres (30ft) tall, with children as young as five years old scrambling to the very top.

Although the towers often collapse, the falls are dampened by the multitude of castellers who gather around their base.

Most falls result in bumps and bruises but casteller members insisted that serious injuries were rare.

Jordi Carbonell, head of the Castellers Union, said there had been no fatal accidents since 1983 - when another child died. Apart from that, the only other recorded death was in the 19th century.

He described Mariona's death as "unfortunate and exceptional".

"The castellers have regulated themselves for the past 200 years," he said. "It will be the castellers themselves who decide whether they wear helmets or not."

This year several castellers groups had begun trying out helmets for small children who climb to the top of their towers.