Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 23, 1993 TAG: 9301230224
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From wire reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
PEOPLE
Eric Clapton, whose only son died in a fall from a 53rd-floor window, has recorded a public service announcement urging parents to take precautions to prevent similar tragedies."Please do two simple things. Use guards on windows and safety gates on stairs," Clapton says in the 30-second television spots, which will begin airing around New York state next week. "It's easy, and it could prevent a terrible tragedy.
"Believe me, I know."
Clapton's 4-year-old son, Conor, fell from his mother's Manhattan high-rise March 20, 1991, after a cleaning woman left the window open without a guard in place.
Clapton recorded the spot in October for the state Health Department, which plans to make it available to other states. The department approached Clapton about the idea.
The veteran guitarist wrote a song about his son's death, "Tears in Heaven," that helped him capture nine Grammy award nominations this year.
Phill Lewis, star of the TV series "Teech," was sentenced to a year in jail Wednesday for killing a 21-year-old woman in December 1991 while driving drunk. After the actor slammed head-on into a car driven by Isabel Duarte in Potomac, Md., his blood measured three times the legal limit of intoxication. Lewis, who also appeared in the movie "City Slickers," apologized to Duarte's sobbing family. "There are no words for the pain I go through every day," he said. Lewis, 24, also was placed on two years' probation and ordered to do 350 hours of community service. His lawyer said there would be no appeal.
Keywords:
FATALITY