VANCOUVER (AFP) — Western Canada's biggest airport announced changes Friday prompted by the death of a Polish traveler lost in the terminal for nearly 10 hours before panicking and dying in a violent police arrest.
Robert Dziekanski's case made world headlines after an amateur video of his death was released last month, showing police repeatedly stunning the distraught traveler with a Taser less than 60 seconds after they first approached him.
It was in the secure international baggage zone, the size of two football fields, that Dziekanski apparently became lost after he arrived from Frankfurt on October 13, while his mother waited for him on the other side of a wall in the public zone.
To avoid such problems in the future, the airport will open an information centre for travelers in the international baggage area, Vancouver Airport Authority president Larry Berg told reporters.
As well, patrols of secure areas would be beefed up and signage would be improved, he said.
Berg said the airport would set up easily identifiable, terminal-wide access to translation services, 24-hour in-terminal medical response, add a messaging service from the secure area to the public greeting area and improve signs with pictograms and multiple languages.
Staff would also begin doing walk-throughs each hour in the area to try to identify lost or confused travelers and assist them.
Berg said the changes follow a seven-week review of "every aspect of our operations, from customer care to communication, safety and security, and even building design."
He said staff will continue to look at improvements in the future.
In video released November 15, four police officers pile onto the Polish man as he writhes and screams in pain on the floor, then falls still within minutes.
Dziekanski, 40, had arrived here as a new immigrant who planned to join his mother.
Multiple inquiries into his death include a provincial public inquiry, a police homicide investigation and an independent coroner's inquest. The federal government also ordered a review of the police use of Tasers, while Polish prosecutors are also looking into the case.
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