Georgia’s attorney general brought in an engineering firm to conduct an independent investigation into a fatal dock collapse on Georgia’s Sapelo Island during a celebration for the historic Gullah-Geechee nation founded by Black descendants of enslaved people.
Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources, which operates the dock, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation have already launched a state investigation into last weekend’s incident. The state probe will continue as the firm, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates conducts its own.
Seven people, all of them over 70, died after the aluminum gangway collapsed Saturday. Officials say around 40 people were standing on the dock when it snapped and about 20 plunged into the water, many of them sucked into heavy currents as they struggled for air. Eight were taken to the hospital, and at least six were critically injured.
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