Just days after an 84-year-old Fordyce woman died at the Carl Redus, Jr. Aquatics Center in Pine Bluff, Mayor Vivian Flowers said her office would start an internal review of the incident.
The week of June 29th was the week the report was to be released. Today, as the long holiday weekend kicked off, she assembled the press at the Kevin Collins Center to share the findings.
Iredell Collins died on June 10th, just after 9am. The Mayor was asked by Deltaplex News if Collins’ body was found in the competition pool, which the police report said, or in the therapy pool, which was in the report that Deltaplex News acquired through a FOIA request.
Vivian responded by saying she was not privy to that information, and she feels her office has been pretty consistent in stating Collins was found in the whirlpool; Police Chief Shawn Davis later explained to us that the original report that had been taken by the patrolman initially had a clerical error, but the report was corrected in 48 hours,
Deltaplex News also asked if all lifeguards at the time of the death were trained in CPR, to which the Mayor said yes. Earlier in the press conference, Mayor Flowers said that all the lifeguards, who are all part-time employees, will be trained in CPR. Flowers also said a full-time lifeguard will be hired and announced that the Aquatic Center will be leaving the control to the city, moving to Parks and Recreation.
At the time of the incident, only 10 part-time lifeguards were employed, and Flowers stated that the facility was not properly staffed at the time of the incident.
Deltaplex News will be following up with a more in-depth story Monday.
