‘All of us ended up in the water’: Victims’ relatives, survivors give emotional accounts of Sapelo Island’s gangway collapse

Emotional accounts from relatives of the victims and survivors of the partial collapse of a boat dock gangway on Georgia’s Sapelo Island and a newly released video of the frantic rescue efforts paint a dramatic picture of Saturday’s incident.

Emotional accounts from relatives of the victims and survivors of the partial collapse of a boat dock gangway on Georgia’s Sapelo Island and a newly released video of the frantic rescue efforts paint a dramatic picture of Saturday’s incident. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, joined by some of the victims’ family members, as well as survivors who fell into the water when the aluminum gangway they were standing on collapsed, said Tuesday at Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, their deaths were “unnecessarily, unjustifiably and … certainly preventable.” Crump is representing the families of three victims. The seven victims were among the dozens of people who traveled to Sapelo Island last weekend to celebrate the Gullah-Geechee, a community of descendants of Africans who were enslaved on coastal plantations in the South. As some were ready to board a ferry returning to the mainland, a gangway collapsed on the visitor ferry dock and at least 20 people were plunged into the Duplin River, Georgia Department of Natural Resources officials said. “We want an investigation on every level, to get the answers to how this happened,” Crump said. “They were there for a celebration, and it turned into a tragedy because of malfeasance and inadequate infrastructure.” Crump alleges negligence led to the incident and is calling for a federal investigation. Natalie Jackson, an attorney with Crump’s team, said at Tuesday’s news conference they’re looking into the entities responsible for day-to-day operations and repairs as well as the manufacturing of materials and the gangway design. “We will get justice for the ‘Sapelo Seven,’” Crump said.