'Dangerous' Jersey Shore Beach Where 3 Died Won't Be Shut Down

A judge won't close a Jersey Shore beach where three people have died in recent years - but the family of one victim vows to keep fighting.

Superior Court Judge Julio Mendez on Monday dismissed a request from the family of Brad Smith, who died in a July 2012 incident, to immediately order the beach closed. But the judge did direct local officials to evaluate safety concerns at the Hereford Inlet beach in North Wildwood.

Mayor Patrick Rosenello did not respond immediately for a comment, but his office did express sympathy for the Smith family in a statement to reporters. North Wildwood officials have denied any wrongdoing.

Paul D'Amato, an attorney for the Smith family, said the Smith family will now petition the mayor and the council to close the four-block-long beach at the north end of the city.

"I wouldn't bring my 10 grandchildren to that beach," D'Amato told Patch, calling the beach "dangerous."

Relatives of Brad Smith of Horsham, Pa., who was walking in ankle-deep water at the beach with his daughter when the sand collapsed, had asked Mendez to order a section of the beach in North Wildwood closed where three people have died since 2009.

Brad Smith

Relatives of Jamila Watkins and Shayne Hart, who died in a similar 2009 accident, also called for the beach to be closed, according to D'Amato.

Sandra Smith, of Horsham, Pennsylvania, sued North Wildwood over the 2012 incident that killed her husband and nearly killed their 7-year-old daughter.

D'Amato said the beach has "underwater landslides" that cause the sand to give way at unpredictable times.

"You don't know when they're going to occur," he said. "That's what I find difficult to understand is why won't they close it."

In the 2012 incident, a passer-by on a personal watercraft rescued Smith's daughter, who was being held above the waves by her father before he drowned.

In 2009, Watkins, 27, and Hart, 15, were walking along the water's edge when the sand gave way beneath them, plunging them into the swirling waters of the inlet. North Wildwood's chief lifeguard said in a deposition the town knew of the condition, which occurs twice each day, for at least six years before Smith drowned.

"I just pray this doesn't happen again while I'm alive," D'Amato said.

Patch file photo