Husband of woman impaled by beach umbrella reacts to new safety guidelines

GARDEN CITY, S.C. (WBTW) — The American Society for Testing and Materials set guidelines to increase the safety of beach umbrellas and their anchoring system.

ASTM said the new standard is to help prevent injury and death. In 2022, Tammy Perreault, 63, died after she was impaled by a beach umbrella in Horry County.

“The beach is supposed to be a fun place. You’re not supposed to sit there and have to look up into the air and see if an umbrella is going to come down on you,” Tammy’s husband Michael said on Wednesday.

The umbrella that killed his wife was picked up by the wind near Calhoun Drive in Garden City and was owned by Beach Services LTD.

“For years, I called them beach javelins, they have such a sharp tip on them, it’s uncalled for,” he said.

ASTM said a standard-sized umbrella should be secured with 75 lbs. of resistance so it doesn’t blow away in winds up to 30 mph.

“It’s more appropriate, I’ve seen quite a few of them now showing up on the beach and people abide by it, they fill them up with sand, and snap them back onto the pole,” Michael said.

Michael said once he sees an umbrella go up in the air, he grabs his chair and goes back to his golf cart to leave the beach.

His attorney, Tiffany Buffkin, said Tammy is not the first person who has lost her life due to a wind-blown beach umbrella. She said hundreds of thousands of beachgoers have been seriously injured and Tammy’s death could’ve been prevented.

“It could’ve been easily avoided by the companies in the industry that are profiting off of renting, setting up, manufacturing these beach umbrellas,” Buffkin said.

Buffkin said the ASTM standards are the voluntary minimum safety requirements to prevent beach umbrellas from becoming airborne and detached from the sand.

“The companies in the industry have knowledge and they’ve known about these other thousands of people who have been significantly and severely injured,” she said.

Buffkin said there are alternatives in keeping beach umbrellas safe.

ASTM encourages people to install a proper anchor device, to check your umbrella frequently and to change out umbrellas if they’re old.