4 Year Old Girl Dies after falling in Lake Lanier

[Road Guy]

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/article/21305/

The story above didnt get updated, but she later died.

Saturday morning I reunited with an old friend from High School I had not seen since 1991 (I think the last time we hung out it was the AC/DC Razors Edge Concert. (We met back up on facebook if you can imagine that..)

Anyways Saturday we went diving at Lake Lanier near the dam, yeah scuba diving in a lake, seems odd but it was actually pretty cool.

When we came up from our second dive we headed to the bank and there was a middle-eastern family on the muddy banks of the clay shore with there kids playing in the water. They had 4 kids (none wearing life jackets) no floats, noodles, nothing. As we swam to shore after resurfacing from our dive I saw the 3 boys playing pretty far out into the water, they were all younger than 10-12 I suspect. I recall the girl wearing a yellow swim suit and was sitting on the shore playing as we walked out of the water (I think they were kind of creeped out by us just appearing out of the water with all of our dive gear on)

She smiled at us and got out of our way so we could head back up to the parking lot (this was the main entrance to the lake) I saw the story on the news and someone was holding a picture of her up and it was her. It is so sad, this was a very cute little girl. i heard the parents didnt know how to swim and that she was in the water about 10 minutes before being found by a good samaritan.

I cant get that little girls face out of my head, wish we would have left for the second dive later, maybe we would have swam right to her, I also cant get the thought of her stupid parents letting these little kids play in a very deep, murky lake without anything to aid in floatation.

 

[maryannette]

She paid the price of her parents' irresponsibility. Sad. That is why being a parent is such a serious responsibility on you. There is so much to teach kids about.

 

[rudy]

This is so sad.

Road Guy, it's difficult to say what would have happened. Looks like there were people there that tried to help when she drowned. Your heart is in the right place. I'm sorry about the whole incident.

When we were younger and naive, we and our son (back before his siblings were born), took a boat out on the Gulf to go see dolphins. By the time we got to the sight-seeing spot, we were way out into the Gulf. It was fun. Later that evening, a terrible thought creeped over me. What if the boat had flipped? What if there were sharks around? (They've recently reported orca's out there.) We were naive.

Back to this story... Knowing what I know now about lakes, I would not take my kids out there. I've collected water samples along our lakes. There's ecoli in them. I've also read news articles about kids dying from amoeba's getting in their brain from the lakes, and about a kid who got some sort of flesh eating bacteria from a type of bacteria that resides at the bottom of lakes.

 

[Guest]

That is absolutely awful!!

JR

 

[roadwreck]

I'm sorry RG, I had seen the story in the news but really never gave it much thought. These things seem to happen far to frequently it's easy to brush them aside without a second thought. Crazy thing is, I've actually had something similar thing happen to me and I had totally forgotten about it until just now. Growing up a friend's dad took me and his sons out to a nearby lake for a weekend on his sail boat. We had spent the whole weekend on the lake and were heading into the harbor on Sunday afternoon to pack up and go home. As we were coming into the harbor a small motor boat loaded with people was coming out. I remember my friends dad say that there were way to many people on the boat and none of them had on lifevests. We pulled into the harbor and docked our boat. As we were tying up people began running down the piers and out along the harbor wall. The boat we had just seen leaving the harbor had capsized and several of the occupants drowned. It's a crazy feeling to know that you saw these people just moments before their accident and recognized the danger they were putting themselves in, but were powerless to do much about it.

I'm a little surprised that I had all but forgotten that incident until now. I can't even remember how long ago that was. Maybe 15-20 years ago. I guess with time the memory will fade, but you will never completely forget.

 

[TouchDown]

I wasn't there and hearing these stories almost makes me sick to my stomach. I just could not even put myself in the parent's position right now. They will forever be haunted by their senseless and stupid mistake that cost them their beautiful daughter. Horror, panic, regret. There was really nothing you could have done, wrong place/wrong time, but I know what you mean... if only.

 

[Wolverine]

Sorry man, that sucks. Very close to home. I had brushed this story off because it seems like about once a year somebody goes at Lanier or Allatoona. But a four year old - just damn. I would blame the parents, but I know that even though I was very careful with my kids, there was always that one split second of poor judgement, plus a distraction, with a danger, that could have had the same result. It's just an awful, awful accident.

We were at the beach once and I looked away for a moment and "suddenly" the two year old was gone. The first ten seconds are "myeh", the next ten seconds are WTF, and the third ten seconds are HFS! Then I saw him about 100 yards down the beach, running happily. I broke the world record for the 100 and caught him just about the time he stopped and realized wtf, where am I? I always think back and think it could have been different, he could have been in the water.

They used to require drown-proofing at Ga Tech. I wonder if they still do? I've tried to teach it to my kids.

 

[Sschell]

damn dude... thats really sad.

 

[Chucktown PE]

We always have a couple of dumbasses down here that go swimming at Breach Inlet between Sullivan's Island and Isle of Palms despite the warning signs that tell you the currents are deadly. They typically end up finding them a couple of days later washed up on Folly Beach or Morris Island. Talk about your Darwin awards.

As for the kids, I never let them in the water or in the boat without life vests. Tidal currents are too unpredictable. My oldest (3-1/2) is in swimming lessons at the neighborhood pool but he is still a long way from going out into the water by himself.

 

[Dexman1349]

It is very sad to hear that.

It reminds me of something that happened here in Colorado a few weeks ago. I was helping my parents pack up my grandfather's stuff and in the mean-time my grandpa's police scanner was running in the back-ground. Over the course of about an hour, we got a play-by-play of the unsuccessful rescue attempts of 2 rafters. When the accident was first reported they had noted the location, and as the events unfolded they would give updates as to where the people in the water were. At one point after one of the location updates, my father (who used to be on the county search & rescue team) said, "wow, they are really moving. With the water flowing that fast, there's no way that guy is still alive." By that point, 3 had already been taken out of the water. There is something that is just surreal about listening to the rescue workers as they talk through the deaths of 2 people.

The section of river that they died in is known as "The Numbers" by the locals and is rated as class 5 rapids. At the time of the accident, this section of river was closed to commercial operations (but is still open to personal boats) due to high water levels (flowing at 1800 cfs, typically opens to the commercial groups at or below 1200-1400 cfs). Only 1 of the 4 people on the raft had any experience (25+ years), while the other 3 people could count on one hand the amount of TIMES (not years) they had each gone rafting before. Even a commercial rafting company at the lower flow rates would not allow this 3:1 in-experienced ratio on their boats through this section.

A link to the article:

http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=119100

 

[Kephart P.E.]

It is very sad to hear that.
It reminds me of something that happened here in Colorado a few weeks ago. I was helping my parents pack up my grandfather's stuff and in the mean-time my grandpa's police scanner was running in the back-ground. Over the course of about an hour, we got a play-by-play of the unsuccessful rescue attempts of 2 rafters. When the accident was first reported they had noted the location, and as the events unfolded they would give updates as to where the people in the water were. At one point after one of the location updates, my father (who used to be on the county search & rescue team) said, "wow, they are really moving. With the water flowing that fast, there's no way that guy is still alive." By that point, 3 had already been taken out of the water. There is something that is just surreal about listening to the rescue workers as they talk through the deaths of 2 people.

The section of river that they died in is known as "The Numbers" by the locals and is rated as class 5 rapids. At the time of the accident, this section of river was closed to commercial operations (but is still open to personal boats) due to high water levels (flowing at 1800 cfs, typically opens to the commercial groups at or below 1200-1400 cfs). Only 1 of the 4 people on the raft had any experience (25+ years), while the other 3 people could count on one hand the amount of TIMES (not years) they had each gone rafting before. Even a commercial rafting company at the lower flow rates would not allow this 3:1 in-experienced ratio on their boats through this section.

A link to the article:

http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=119100

As an experienced whitewater kayaker and rafter this stuff like this happens all too often.

What parents really should be concerned about are Low Head Dams. These things are real man eaters and people float into them all the time.drowning machines

 

[Dexman1349]

As an experienced whitewater kayaker and rafter this stuff like this happens all too often.

Yeah, I grew up in the unofficial white-water capitol of the US. Within a 75 mile stretch of the Arkansas River (between Granite & the Royal Gorge/Canyon City) there are over 200 different rafting companies. Because there were so many deaths on the river year after year, my father (he is the Emergency room charge nurse & had spent several years as an EMT & search & rescue worker) would tell me about how de-sensitized the rescue workers had become and how they would place bets at the beginning of the season as to how many would fall victim to the river that year (ie. 2:1 odds on an over/under of 15). They would all hope for the under, but bet on the over because it usually would happen. It does sound sick & twisted, but because it was so common everyone just learn to live with it.

When it gets this common, the people who die no longer have faces. They simply become statistics.

 

[Katiebug]

How sad for that family. Even if young children know how to swim, parents (and other responsible adults) shouldn't trust them for a second. I was a lifeguard and swim instructor in my teens. Even in a controlled environment like a swimming pool, a child can drown with very little warning and virtually none of the behavior that one might expect from a drowning victim. Several times at the YMCA I had to "assist" a toddler or preschooler who'd slip into the pool behind a parent or swim instructor's back and then go under suddenly. When teaching beginner and intermediate swim lessons, I required the children to sit on the pool deck when working on certain skills with one child at a time. If I had to turn my back on the other kids for any reason, they had to sit on the deck. That wasn't the Y's policy, it was my policy after having to rescue other instructors' students.

When I was about 15, I ended up having to go into our condo complex pool after my younger brother (he was 10 or so). There was never a lifeguard on duty. He was quite a strong swimmer and was actually on the YMCA swim team along with me; it not the sort of situation where you'd expect a problem. He was in 10 feet of water when he suddenly looked over at my mom and me on the pool deck, said "I'm very tired now" and sunk like a rock. Thank God I was there, because our mother can't do more than doggy paddle, much less rescue someone! I was in the water within 2 seconds and he was already halfway to the bottom. I had no flotation assistance and had to pull him to the surface and get him to the side of the pool on my own. Fortunately I was a competitive swimmer and had taken lifeguard training (although was still a year too young to be certified). Thankfully he hadn't inhaled any water. The kid just said he felt like he couldn't make it to the side. Scared the hell out of me and our mom - he was never allowed to swim without me being there after that. Ironically, he's in the Coast Guard as an adult and routinely has to take swim tests wearing 50 pounds of body armor and gear (and he still sinks like a rock if he's not careful).

Our own future children will start learning to swim in infancy, but they will not be allowed to swim unattended until well into their teen years. It's that important to me. And natural bodies of water are off-limits; pools only. At least in a pool the lifeguards have a better chance of seeing someone on the bottom. I guarded for our city parks & rec department at a lake and our biggest fear was losing someone in water with such poor visibility - we did snorkel drills daily, basically combing the bottom with our hands and feet to search for a body. Not fun...