A 61-year-old woman and her two grandchildren drowned after their car went off a boat ramp into Pond Cove in Roque Bluffs last month, according to the official cause of death released by the state medical examiner on Tuesday.
Their manner of death has been ruled accidental.
Sharon Bukulmez, of Mount Desert, and her two grandchildren, 5-year-old Kinsley Grubb and 3-year-old Sawyer Grubb, both of Bar Harbor, were heading home to Machias on Sept. 19 after the wedding of her son and the children’s parents in Jonesboro but did not arrive as expected.
They were found dead the next day in a submerged vehicle beyond the boat ramp on Schoppee Point Road, where the roadway leads directly into the water with no barrier.
It was not the first fatality at that boat ramp. In 2013, two women, one of whom was five months pregnant, drowned after their minivan went into the water on a foggy, rainy July evening.
After the most recent tragedy, Roque Bluffs officials claimed they had been trying for years to revamp the boat ramp area in a way that would have forced traffic into a sharp right turn. But they said the plan was delayed by the state.
A metal gate has since been installed at the end of the road, Fox 22 Bangor reported.
Maine State Police said on Tuesday that they are continuing to investigate the circumstances around the incident.
