Two years before the Sapelo Island gangway collapse that killed seven people in October, several state employees expressed concern about the structure.
A similar gangway in nearby St. Marys had collapsed in September 2022, injuring more than a dozen people. That incident prompted officials with the state Department of Natural Resources to order a new inspection of the Sapelo gangway. Their concern? Both structures had been built by the same contractor, Crescent Equipment Co.
“Just wanted to give you the heads up in case you have not heard about the accident in St. Marys at the city dock with the 80 foot Crescent Marine gangway that is like to ones on Sapelo and soon to be Meridian,” a Department of Natural Resources official wrote to DNR Sapelo Island manager Fred Hay two days after the St. Marys incident.
The email is one of several reviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since the Oct. 19 collapse during Sapelo’s annual Gullah Geechee cultural celebration day. The records reveal that staff at the Department of Natural Resources had concerns about damage to the Sapelo Island gangway prior to the collapse.
The AJC has also reviewed hundreds of pages of investigation documents and court filings regarding the 2022 St. Marys incident, which was caused when welds connecting the gangway to the wooden dock had failed.
Months before the St. Marys collapse, state officials asked a contractor to inspect the Sapelo gangway after a group of University of Georgia employees reported a loud popping noise as they crossed the structure, emails show. That May 2022 inspection discovered several “fractured” welds underneath the Sapelo gangway, which were still damaged when Crescent reinspected the gangway in December 2022, three months after the St. Marys collapse.
In both instances, Crescent assured state officials the damage to the welds did not affect the structural integrity of the gangway. State officials were satisfied with this explanation.
Credit: Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Credit: Georgia Department of Natural Resources
The company is based in Crescent, Georgia, which is 5 miles from the Sapelo Island Visitors Center. Crescent has built some two dozen structures across the state for the Department of Natural Resources since 2015, records show.
After the St. Marys collapse, Crescent recommended that the gangway be inspected “periodically and after any severe weather” going forward. Two years later, a month before the collapse, Hurricane Helene passed through Georgia and left a trail of destruction across the East Coast.
DNR Deputy Commissioner Trevor Santos said in a written response to the AJC’s questions that DNR staff did a “close visual inspection” of the Sapelo Island gangway after Helene and found no concerns. Santos added the DNR is inspecting the roughly a dozen Crescent gangways under DNR’s jurisdiction throughout the state.
Reached by phone on Wednesday, Crescent CEO Tyler Barrow declined to comment.
A gangway collapse in St. Marys
On Sept. 20, 2022, several U.S. Navy veterans and their spouses were visiting St. Marys, in Camden County, about 75 miles south of Sapelo Island. The occasion was a reunion at the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base. At about 10 a.m. that morning, a Crescent-built gangway collapsed out from under the group, plunging several people into the water. Seventeen people were injured in the incident.
An investigation by the city of St. Marys found the welds connecting the gangway to the wooden dock were “incomplete” and had failed that day, records show.
Several of those injured in the collapse sued Crescent as well as other contractors and the city of St. Marys, court records show. The plaintiffs alleged they suffered serious injuries when the St. Marys gangway failed, including multiple broken bones. Several of the lawsuits were quickly settled for an undisclosed sum, while some are still open, records show.
Credit: Courtesy
Credit: Courtesy
As news of the St. Marys collapse circulated among Department of Natural Resources staff in 2022, it did not take long for state officials to make the connection to Sapelo Island, which featured a similar gangway 8 feet wide and 80 feet long. The day after the St. Marys incident, several state employees expressed concern about the safety of the gangway at the Marsh Landing dock on Sapelo Island.
“Gives you the warm fuzzys about the Marsh Landing dock … was this one made by Crescent?” one DNR employee wrote to Hay, DNR’s Sapelo Island manager, on Sept. 21, 2022.
Hay responded, “it was installed by our current contractor at meridian and may be a crescent build.”
Hay had weighed in months earlier after the May inspection and voiced concerns about the Sapelo gangway, which was about two years old at the time. He seemed satisfied with Crescent’s assurances that it was OK.
“I do have to wonder if the ramp is experiencing more horizontal movement than maybe expected, which contributed to the stress on the welds that failed/are failing,” Hay wrote in a May 27 email to other DNR officials adding, “I just didn’t expect to see this kind of issue so quickly. If this collective group is satisfied with the response, then I am satisfied.”
Still, Crescent was asked to reinspect the gangway after the St. Marys incident. The state was again assured the structure was safe and that the purpose of the small welds were to dampen sound when people crossed. The DNR told the AJC that no repairs were made to the gangway after the Crescent inspections that year.
“A follow-up inspection was conducted in December 2022, and it was determined there were no structural concerns with the gangway,” Santos, the deputy commissioner, told the AJC.
The Sapelo Island gangway is one of more than two dozen Crescent structures purchased by the Department of Natural Resources since 2015, records show. They include several docks that have been built along the coastal waters. Roughly a dozen Crescent gangways have been installed across the state, including Jack Hill State Park in Tattnall County, Fort Yargo State Park in Winder and Magnolia Springs State Park in Jenkins County.
“Out of an abundance of caution, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) placed new signs at the entrance of gangways throughout the state that limit the number of individuals on the gangways at any given time,” said Santos. “We are in the process of having these gangways inspected.”
Nearly a month after the Sapelo collapse, little is known publicly about why the gangway failed. The state estimated roughly 40 people were on the structure at the time of the incident, while noting it has a capacity of more than 300 people.
The seven people killed had gathered for a celebration of the Gullah Geechee, descendants of the enslaved people who inhabited the island generations ago. Photos and videos that have surfaced and been shared online since the collapse show the gangway appeared to buckle in the middle, dropping several people into the fast-moving waters below.
The DNR would not comment on the ongoing investigation by the agency and the GBI into the collapse. A separate investigation is being conducted by engineering firm, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, which was retained by State Attorney General Chris Carr’s office.
Civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, who is representing several survivors, has called on the federal government to investigate the collapse. He pledged he would get justice for the victims he refers to as the “Sapelo Seven.”
--Data reporter Jennifer Peebles contributed reporting for this story.
About the Author
