Usher’s ex-wife wants to drain Georgia’s largest lake, where a boater killed her 11-year-old son while tubing in 2012, to ‘avoid further tragedies’
- Tameka Foster, 52, wants to drain and restore Lake Sidney Lanier, Georgia
- Her 11-year-old son Kile Glover was struck and killed on the lake in 2012
The ex-wife of R&B singer Usher wants to drain Georgia’s largest lake, where her son was fatally hit by a jet ski in 2012, to “prevent further tragedies.”
Tameka Foster, 52, has garnered more than 2,500 signatures for a petition calling for officials to drain, clean and restore Lake Sidney Lanier, Georgia, to improve safety and remove hazardous waste.
It comes after her 11-year-old son Kile Glover was beaten and killed on the lake 11 years ago by Jeffrey Hubbard, a close friend of Kile’s father Ryan Glover, while riding a jet ski in a “reckless” manner with no hands.
Heavy traffic on the lake has caused more than 170 boat deaths and drownings between 1994 and 2018, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Ms. Foster said, “Draining, cleaning and restoring Lake Lanier is not only necessary, but an opportunity to honor the memory of those who have lost their lives and prevent further tragedies.”
Tameka Foster (right), 52, has collected more than 2,500 signatures for a petition calling for officials to drain, clean and restore Lake Sidney Lanier, Georgia. Pictured: Usher (left), Kile Glover (center)
It comes after her 11-year-old son Kile Glover was struck and killed on the lake 11 years ago. Pictured: Lake Sidney Lanier, Georgia
Located about an hour from Atlanta, Georgia, Lake Lanier covers 60 square miles with a depth of up to 50 feet.
According to the conservation group Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, it provides drinking water for about 5 million people.
And Buford Dam on the south side of the lake generates hydropower for the Atlanta metropolitan area.
Mr. Hubbard was found pleaded guilty to five charges – homicide by vessel, serious injury by vessel, reckless operation, unlawful use of personal watercraft and boat traffic violation – in 2014.
Kile’s stepmother, Marsha Glover, wept when she told the court that Mr. Hubbard had been driving his jet ski in a reckless manner prior to the collision.
“He was just zooming back and forth, screaming with no hands on the jet ski. Just really crazy and whimsical,” she said.
Tameka Foster, mother of Kile Glover, 11, the stepson of R&B artist Usher, wears a T-shirt emblazoned with the likeness of her son who died in the boating accident
Ms. Glover said she and her husband Ryan saw Mr. Hubbard race to their pontoon boat, which was towing their son on an inner tube.
“We looked up and I saw Jeff coming as if he was heading straight for the boat. And before I knew it, there was a big cloud of water,” Glover said.
She told the jury that she and her husband realized seconds later that the jet ski had hit the tube.
Kile was pronounced brain dead on July 8 and died on July 21 after being taken from life.
The Army Corps of Engineers constructed Lake Lanier in the 1950s. The county county office in Mobile, Alabama, which still operates the lake, did not respond to a request for comment.