Authorities have said they are investigating the “catastrophic failure” of a dock gangway that collapsed and killed seven people in Sapelo Island, Georgia.
Crowds had gathered for an autumn celebration by the island’s tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants.
The gangway, installed in 2021, was crowded with people waiting for a ferry boat when it collapsed, sending at least 20 people plummeting into the Atlantic waters off the state’s coast.
Eight people were taken to hospital and three of them remain in critical condition.
Georgia Department of Natural Resources commissioner Walter Rabon said: “It is a structural failure. There should be very, very little maintenance to an aluminium gangway like that, but we’ll see what the investigation unfolds.”
He added that “upwards of 40 people” were on the gangway when it collapsed.
US Coast Guard crews and others searched the water in the aftermath and early on Sunday a team of investigators were on site to begin the investigation into the failed walkway.
Natural Resources spokesperson Tyler Jones said there had been “no collision” with a boat or anything else, adding: “The thing just collapsed. We don’t know why.”
After a lawsuit by residents, the ferry docks were rebuilt in October 2020 as they failed to meet federal accessibility standards for people with disabilities.
The state demolished and upgraded the docks and ferry boats to accommodate people in wheelchairs and with impaired hearing.
The deadly collapse happened as locals, family members, and tourists all gathered for Cultural Day, which spotlights Hogg Hummock, home to a few dozen black residents.
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The community of dirt roads and modest homes was founded after the American Civil War by former slaves from the cotton plantation of Thomas Spalding – a US politician in the late 18th century.
Roger Lotson, the only black member of the McIntosh County Board of Commissioner, whose district includes Sapelo Island, said Hogg Hummock’s slave descendants were “family” and “everyone knows each other”.
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He added: “In any tragedy, especially like this, they are all one.
“They’re all united. They all feel the same pain and the same hurt.”
