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The mother of a 14-year-old boy who died after being pulled under water by currents at a local dam is suing the City of New Albany, accusing it of negligence for failing to close off the area or post warning signs.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in Marion Superior Court, names the city, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the Clark County Board of Commissioners, the Clarksville Town Council, and the Floyd County Board of Commissioners as defendants.
The DNR declined to provide a statement to The Indiana Lawyer. New Albany’s attorney did not respond to The Lawyer’s request for comment before Wednesday’s deadline.
The incident occurred in May 2024 at low-head dam known as Providence Mill Dam and also Glenwood Park Dam or the Silver Creek Dam.
The lawsuit alleges that defendants knew for years that low-head dams are extremely dangerous to the public because they can produce hydraulic currents that can suck kids, adults, swimmers with life jackets, and even boats underwater, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit lays out several things that the plaintiff says happened in the year’s leading up to her son’s death:
- In 2016, PBS produced a documentary about Indiana’s low-head dams, called “Over, Under, Gone: The Killer in Our Rivers.”The documentary detailed 13 people who were killed by these dams, including nine children.
- In 2020, the River Heritage Conservancy and Ecosystems Connections Institute received a $75,000 grant to remove the dam. The following February, the institute notified the city of its permit, and that July, the Clarksville Town Council passed a resolution identifying the dam as a nuisance that puts public health and safety at risk.
- In November 2022, the city proposed to install a kayak launch and public recreation area near the dam. The assistant director of the DNR’s Division of Water testified that, “…if there is a ramp there to encourage them to put boats in below one of these structures, I really fear for those people because they could get up near the low head dam and get drawn in by a recirculating current if one is occurring…”.
- The following March, the institute provided defendants with resources explaining why these dams are “drowning machines,” according to the suit.
- By May 2024, the dam had not been removed, and no signs were posted warning the public of its dangers. The lawsuit accuses the city of posting a billboard advertising recreational fishing on the dam instead.
On May 27, 2024, plaintiff Amanda Mallott’s son, 14-year-old Andre Edwards Jr., went to Providence Mill Dam with friends.
The lawsuit claims the group was jumping into the water off of what they thought was a waterfall but Mallott’s son, known as A.J., slipped and landed in the hydraulic currents, where he died.
“The entire situation involving A.J. was entirely preventable because the dangers of reverse currents were known…and yet no precautionary measures were taken to warn or eliminate the dangers of the reverse currents that took A.J.’s life,” said Marc Sedwick of Sedwick Law P.C.
Sedwick is representing the plaintiff along with Jonathon Noyes and William Winingham of Wilson Kehoe Winingham LLC.
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