Trial nears in drowning case
Plaintiff blames lifeguards, city
COURTS | Bruce Rushton
Shortly before Eric M. Jones drowned in Lake Springfield in 2007, the mayor’s office received a complaint.
A woman called the city to complain that just one lifeguard was on post while 52 children swam and frolicked in the water. The woman, whose name doesn’t appear on an email that the mayor’s office sent to City Water, Light and Power, which was in charge at the beach, said that the only lifeguard in the area had his back to swimmers and that other lifeguards were in the beach clubhouse instead of watching swimmers.
The complaint prompted Doug England, a CWLP property manager who supervised beach operations, to write a memo telling managers that lifeguards must be present in swimming and diving areas when bathers were in the water.
“Whether there is one person or more, guards must be on duty in any area patrons are using,” England wrote. “I have pointed this out to managers in the past. Please make sure that this type of complaint does not occur again.”
On July 14, 2007, less than a month later, Jones, 16, drowned, and his mother, Mary Yarborough, blames the city in a lawsuit filed more than six years ago and set for trial on Jan. 26. The city has lost a legal fight to keep jurors from seeing England’s memo, which attorneys for Yarborough say helps prove that the city had standards for lifeguards and that those standards were ignored.
The city blames Jones, who could not swim, for his own death, saying that he should have heeded warning signs and not ventured past ropes separating the shallow part of the swimming area from the deep part, where he and his two companions, who also could not swim, found themselves in water over their heads.
“Common sense dictates that any water deeper then chest-deep water is too deep for a non-swimmer,” wrote Tom Griffiths, an aquatic safety expert hired by the city, in a court-filed report. “The beach at Lake Springfield was an open and obvious risk, especially to non-swimmers. Signage, buoyant lines, all indicated where was safe and where was dangerous for these boys.”
The sides disagree on several key points, including how many swimmers were in the water when tragedy struck. The city says that between 25 and 30 people were in the water. The plaintiffs say that more than 100 people were in the swimming area where Jones disappeared under the water and that no lifeguard was posted to watch that area exclusively. Rather, the plaintiffs say, a lifeguard posted between eight and 15 feet from where Jones drowned was assigned to watch a diving board in a different area to ensure that divers resurfaced after hitting the water.
A lifeguard station in line of sight from where Jones went under was not occupied, the plaintiffs say, and Jones’ two companions struggled, unnoticed, to save themselves from drowning less than 20 feet from the station where a lifeguard was watching the diving board. Jones disappeared in that same area.
While two lifeguards watched the water, at least eight others were in the beach house, sunbathing, playing volleyball, diving off the diving board or floating in inner tubes, the plaintiffs say. The plaintiffs also say that Jones’ companions promptly notified a lifeguard that he had disappeared, but lifeguards were slow to initiate a proper search and did not follow emergency protocols. Jones’ body was found about 30 minutes after he disappeared.
Griffiths, the aquatic safety expert for the city, writes in his report that lifeguards can’t be expected to see everything and that the two lifeguards who were on post “simply missed” Jones’ disappearance.
“Regardless of how effective visual surveillance is, only an insignificant number of people in the water can be watched at any given time,” Griffiths writes. “When lifeguards do in fact miss a drowning scenario unfold, it does not necessarily mean that the lifeguards were negligent.”
The city closed the beach for the rest of the year after Jones’ death. It remained closed in 2008 but reopened in 2009. It has been closed ever since, with city officials blaming a lack of money.
Contact Bruce Rushton at [email protected].
