Families in the Jacksonville area and all of Florida have endured an alarming number of child drownings, and as school ends and summer begins the risks become even higher.
At a news conference Tuesday, May 26, the family of 2-year-old Melani Mixson and their attorney urged apartment complexes, hotels and property owners to recognize their role in drowning prevention and water safety.
Mandatory retention ponds for developments across Florida pose particular danger to children, especially those with autism and others vulnerable like Melani, who the family said was nonverbal.
The briefing also comes during National Water Safety Month as families prepare for increased exposure to pools, lakes, retention ponds and vacation properties during summer travel.
They gathered at Bennett Creek Apartments where Melani wandered to the pond that terrible night off Bowden Road in Jacksonville. About two months shy of turning 3 years old, she drowned Sept. 17, 2024.
The family and The Haggard Law Firm filed a wrongful death lawsuit a few months later stating the dangerous conditions surrounding the retention pond and a failure to comply with mandatory safety regulations. Named in the lawsuit are Bowden Road Housing Ltd., Richman Property Services Inc. and The Lake Doctors Inc. They’re now awaiting a trial ― and changes.
The negligence allegations include failures involving pond maintenance, safety inspections, warnings to residents and dangerous side slopes around the retention pond.
Melani’s mother, Amaya White, said she relives this every day and doesn’t want it to happen to anybody else.
“It’s hard being here alone without her already, knowing that was my one and only,” she said. “But it’s even harder to see that no change has happened in the apartments. Every day I wake up walking past the pond, nothing’s changed. It doesn’t make it any better for me already not having my kid. So I don’t want to see this happen to any other family, it could happen to anybody. … I just need a change, I need a fix, I need something different, something to know that I’m being heard, that we’re all being heard, that somebody cares.”
Their attorney, Adam Finkel, also is member of the National Drowning Prevention Alliance and previously represented the family of 2-year-old Musiq Jordan-Dye who similarly drowned in retention pond at Paradise Island Apartments a year earlier. That case has since been settled, according to public court records.
Florida regularly ranks among the states with the highest number of child drownings, and Finkel said many are preventable in residential communities.
“The way that pond was designed and was supposed to be maintained is not what you find today,” he said of the Bennett Creek Apartments.
What do the apartment attorneys say about the pond drowning lawsuit?
On April 30 attorneys for the defendants filed a 78-page motion for a summary judgment to resolve the case without a trial due to insufficient evidence.
It states that Melani’s great-grandmother and mother testified that she did not voluntarily enter the pond but instead fell into it due to the retention pond’s side slope.
“However, it is clear that there is absolutely no record evidence that Plaintiff can proffer that in any way supports the argument that the decedent fell into the retention pond or otherwise fell as a result of the pond’s side slopes,” the document states. “Additionally, although Defendants bear no burden to disprove Plaintiff’s argument, the record evidence — which includes a video showing the sequence of events that occurred from the time the decedent reached the pond to when she ultimately entered it — clearly demonstrates that the decedent voluntarily walked into the pond immediately prior to her drowning.”
They also counter with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office investigaiton.
“JSO found no evidence indicating that the decedent fell into the retention pond or otherwise fell as a result of the pond’s side slopes,” according to the motion. “Likewise, JSO found no evidence indicating that the decedent was unable to escape the retention pond specifically because of the pond’s side slopes.”
The Times-Union sent a group email to six attorneys for the defendants requesting comment about other allegations of safety failures and is awaiting a response.
For information on drowning prevention, visit the National Drowning Prevention Alliance website at NDPA.org.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Mom urges pond and water safety amid lawsuit in toddler’s drowning
Reporting by Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
