ATLANTA — Investigators interviewing witnesses to Saturday’s tragic gangway collapse on Sapelo Island and examining evidence won’t have a quick answer to what caused the structure to give way, Georgia Commissioner of Natural Resources Walter Rabon said Tuesday.
“This could go for a week if not months,” Rabon said after updating members of the state Board of Natural Resources on the incident at their monthly meeting in Atlanta.
As many as 40 people may have been on the gangway late Saturday afternoon preparing to take a state-operated ferry from the island’s Marsh Landing Dock back to the mainland when the 80-foot aluminum structure buckled and collapsed.
About 700 people were on the island that day for the annual Sapelo Cultural Day celebration of the Georgia barrier island’s Gullah Geechee community, Rabon said Tuesday.
Of up to 20 people who went into the water, seven died and several were injured.
Two of the injured are still hospitalized, Rabon said
“There’s no telling how many lives were saved thanks to the actions of first responders and Good Samaritans,” he said.