Usher’s ex-wife wants to drain lake where son fatally struck by boat

Tameka Foster. Photo / AP

The ex-wife of R&B singer Usher is calling to drain Georgia’s largest lake, where her son was fatally injured 11 years ago.

Fashion designer Tameka Foster has collected more than 2500 signatures for her online petition imploring officials to “drain, clean, and restore” Lake Sidney Lanier, to allow for safety improvements and the removal of hazardous debris and other obstructions.

Kile Glover, her 11-year-old son with Bounce TV founder Ryan Glover, died in July 2012 after a personal watercraft struck the boy as he floated in an inner tube on the lake.

Tameka Foster wears a T-shirt of her son who died in a boating accident. Photo / AP

“Draining, cleaning, and restoring Lake Lanier is not only necessary but also an opportunity to honour the memory of those who have lost their lives and prevent further tragedies,” Foster wrote in her change.org petition, which she has also promoted on her Instagram page.

Located roughly an hour’s drive northeast of Atlanta, Lake Lanier covers nearly 155sq km and has water up to 49m deep.

It’s far from just a getaway for millions of boaters, anglers and other yearly visitors.

Tameka Foster, the ex-wife of R&B singer Usher, is calling to drain Lake Lanier, Georgia's largest lake, where her son was fatally injured 11 years ago. Photo / AP

The lake provides drinking water for about five million people, according to the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper conservation group. And Buford Dam at the lake’s southern end generates hydroelectric power for the metro Atlanta area.

The Army Corps of Engineers constructed Lake Lanier in the 1950s. The Corps’ district office in Mobile, Alabama, which still operates the lake, did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment.

Floating docks on dry land far from the water as they are closed due to low water levels on Lake Lanier. Photo / AP

Heavy traffic on the lake has resulted in hundreds of boat collisions in the past three decades, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The agency reported more than 170 boating and drowning deaths between 1994 and 2018.

Foster and Usher married in 2007 and divorced two years later.