Families of those killed in collapse of Georgia ferry dock sue companies that built it

ATLANTA (AP) — Relatives of seven people who drowned in waters off a Georgia island after a ferry dock walkway collapsed announced Wednesday they filed a lawsuit against the companies that designed and built it.

Dozens of people were standing on the metal walkway over the water between a ferry boat and a dock on Sapelo Island when it snapped in the middle. Many plunged into the water and got swept away by tidal currents, while others clung desperately to the hanging, fractured structure.

The tragedy Oct. 19 struck as about 700 people visited Sapelo Island for a celebration of the tiny Hogg Hummock community founded by enslaved people who were emancipated after the Civil War. Reachable only by boat, it’s one of the few Gullah-Geechee communities remaining in the South, where slaves worked on isolated island plantations retained much of their African heritage.

“It was supposed to be a celebration of Black pride, but it became a day of great, great, great Black loss of humanity and life,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump, one of several lawyers behind the lawsuit, told an Atlanta news conference. “We’re filing this lawsuit to speak to that tragedy.”

Attorneys for the families of those killed and more than three dozen survivors say the 80-foot (24-meter) walkway was weak because of a lack of structural reinforcement, poor welding and failure by the Georgia firm that built it to follow design plans.

The walkway was “so poorly designed and constructed that any competent construction professional should have recognized the flimsy and unstable nature of the gangway,” the lawsuit says.

Regina Brinson, one of the suing survivors, said she was on the crowded walkway when she heard a loud crack and saw family friend Carlotta McIntosh plunge into the water holding her walker. Brinson and her uncle, Isaiah Thomas, also fell. Brinson recalled prying her uncle’s fingers from her shirt to avoid being dragged underwater. Both Thomas and McIntosh died.

“The pain doesn’t get any easier whatsoever,” Brinson told the Atlanta news conference.

Kimberly Wood said she tumbled from the collapsed walkway clutching her 2-year-old daughter. Her older girl, 8, clung to the dangling walkway’s railing.

Wood said she managed to tread water until she reached a life preserver tossed from the ferry boat. Her older daughter was rescued and treated for wounds to her hand, said Wood, who had an injured shoulder.

“I’m shaking now just taking about it,” said Wood, another plaintiff.

The lawsuit targets four private contractors hired to design and rebuild the ferry dock and walkway for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The project was finished in 2021.

The walkway was fabricated by McIntosh County business Crescent Equipment Co. Its attorney, Clinton Fletcher, declined to comment. The project’s general contractor, Virginia-based Centennial Contractors Enterprises, said by email that it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

Architecture and engineering firms also named as defendants did not immediately comment.

The lawsuit doesn’t target the Department of Natural Resources or any other Georgia state agency. It says the department relied on its private contractors to ensure the walkway was safely built, which was “beyond the scope of the DNR’s internal expertise and qualifications.”

The agency told The Associated Press last year that the walkway should have been able to support the weight of 320 people. About 40 people were standing on it when it snapped.

“There was supposed to be a certified professional engineer that signed off on that part of the project and that was neglected,” said Chadrick Mance, a Savannah attorney representing nine of the injured.

Filed in Gwinnett County State Court in metro Atlanta, the lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for negligence, wrongful deaths and personal injuries.

The cause of the collapse remains under investigation by the state officials, said Haley Chafin, a spokesperson for the Department of Natural Resources. State Attorney General Chris Carr also tapped a private engineering firm to perform an independent investigation.

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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.

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Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon.