UPDATE: Jury at Sweatman inquest shown chilling video on Day two
By Bruce Fuhr
The jury at the BC Coroners inquest into the death of member swift water search and rescue volunteer Sheilah Lorraine Sweatman witnessed chilling video Tuesday at the Nelson Courthouse.
The unedited footage detailed the entire sequence of events leading to Sweatman’s death in June 2011.
The rescue team, which Sweatman was a member, was attempting to recover a submerged vehicle on the Goat River in June last year.
Earlier in the day two RCMP officers took the witness stand, a RCMP dive team members and Creston Constable David Skretting, and talked about their accounts of the incident.
The dive team expert told the presiding coroner Matt Brown and the seven-member jury he would not scrapped the recovery mission for the vehicle that may or may not have contained the body of a deceased woman reported missing more than a week earlier.
The inquest continues through the week with jury recommendations expect Friday.
The person in charge of the swift water rescue is expected to be on the witness stand Wednesday.
‘Rescue plan was not adequate’ says WorkSafeBC investigator at Sheilah Sweatman inquest
The first day of the BC Coroners inquest into how swift water search and rescue team member Sheilah Lorraine Sweatman died during a recovery operation in June of 2011 concluded Monday afternoon at the Nelson Courthouse with WorkSafeBC investigator Nigel Corduff on the stand.
Corduff fielded questions about a WorkSafeBC report that blamed poor planning and inadequate equipment for the death of the search and rescue volunteer.
“The rescue plan was not adequate in the Sheilah Sweatman accident,” Corduff told inquest counsel John Orr.
Sheilah Sweatman 29, drowned in the Goat River south of Creston in June of 2011 while trying to recover a submerged car.
Sweatman was part of the search and rescue team called to determine if there were any occupants inside the vehicle.
Corduff said a pre-planning report should have been used before the rescue team commenced the recovery operation.
Using the document would have suggested the steel cable would not be the best method for a successful recovery.
The WorkSafeBC report said Sweatman got caught up in a steel cable and was dragged underwater.
The was no way of saving the Winnipeg native because there was no equipment available in the boat to cut the cable.
The day after Sweatman’s death a nylon rope was used to successfully remove the vehicle from the river.
During the morning session of the inquest in front of presiding coroner Matt Brown and the seven-member jury, Sweatman’s mother, Terri, give tearful, emotional statement about her daughter.
Terri Sweatman described Sheilah, fourth of the five Sweatman children as a “fierce but tender daughter.”
She added that Sheilah was “a strong-willed, dedicated” member of the local search and rescue team with “tremendous courage to face any physical or moral challenge.”
A portrait of Sheilah Sweatman was placed on an easel near the jury box.
Outside the courtroom following the morning session, Wynn Sweatman, when asked how the family has been dealing with the loss of their daughter, said, “it’s been dreadful . . . my family has been crushed by this.”
Testimony is scheduled through Thursday, with Friday set aside for jury deliberations.
The remainder of the witness list includes several search and rescue members, RCMP officers, a pathologist and a toxicologist along with Sheila’s colleague on the raft and the tow truck driver.
Emergency management personnel and Sheilah’s father Wynn are expected to conclude the witness list later in the week.
There is also a video to be shown of the incident.
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