Woman in wedding dress drowns in Quebec river

[Locutus]

Wow.

Police have confirmed the death of a 30-year-old woman who fell into the Ouareau River, about 75 kilometres north of Montreal, while having her wedding photos taken.

The woman was identified as 30-year-old Maria Pantazopoulos from Laval.

According to Ronald McInnis, spokesman for the Quebec provincial police, Pantazopoulos was standing in about 15 to 30 centimetres of water while a photographer was taking her picture.

McInnis said her dress got heavy from soaking up water and the woman asked for help getting out of the river.

The photographer and his assistant were unable to lift her out. That's when the woman was swept away by harsh currents and taken under water.

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Woman in wedding dress drowns in Quebec river - Montreal - CBC News

 

[SLM]

From what I've heard she was participating in a "trash the dress" photo shoot, she reportedly got married back in June. Her husband wasn't even there.

This was something that was completely preventable. Tragic and sad on many levels.

 

[shadowshiv]

From what I've heard she was participating in a "trash the dress" photo shoot, she reportedly got married back in June. Her husband wasn't even there.

This was something that was completely preventable. Tragic and sad on many levels.

Just a tragic chain of events. The wedding dress, the slippery rock, the strong rapids. It's a shame that she lost her life doing something that seems so innocuous.

 

[SLM]

Just a tragic chain of events. The wedding dress, the slippery rock, the strong rapids. It's a shame that she lost her life doing something that seems so innocuous.

I'm loathe to speak ill of the dead but can't help but wonder just what in the hell was she thinking? Or the photographer? Or any of the witnesses? Standing on slippery rocks in what could be dangerous water must have seemed questionable to someone and to do it in order to get the perfect shot for something that is basically trendy at the moment.

It's definitely sad and tragic but it also makes me angry in a way because of the stupid waste of a life.

 

[Walter]

It's definitely sad and tragic but it also makes me angry in a way because of the stupid waste of a life.

Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. - I. Asimov

 

[JLM]

From what I've heard she was participating in a "trash the dress" photo shoot, she reportedly got married back in June. Her husband wasn't even there.

This was something that was completely preventable. Tragic and sad on many levels.

I'm certainly not knowledgable on wedding dresses (having never worn one), but I'm wondering when this started happening she couldn't have unbuttoned the dress and ripped it off. Very sad!

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I'm certainly not knowledgable on wedding dresses (having never worn one), but I'm wondering when this started happening she couldn't have unbuttoned the dress and ripped it off. Very sad!

She probably didn't have time. Once the rapids got her she was as good as dead.

 

[MapleDog]

I'm loathe to speak ill of the dead but can't help but wonder just what in the hell was she thinking? Or the photographer? Or any of the witnesses? Standing on slippery rocks in what could be dangerous water must have seemed questionable to someone and to do it in order to get the perfect shot for something that is basically trendy at the moment.

It's definitely sad and tragic but it also makes me angry in a way because of the stupid waste of a life.

Would have been safer in a lake,a pond or a pool.

As for whoever thought of this,he or she lacked common sense.

 

[JLM]

Would have been safer in a lake,a pond or a pool.

As for whoever thought of this,he or she lacked common sense.

And no one thought to take a life jacket along!

 

[SLM]

I'm certainly not knowledgable on wedding dresses (having never worn one), but I'm wondering when this started happening she couldn't have unbuttoned the dress and ripped it off. Very sad!

She probably didn't have time. Once the rapids got her she was as good as dead.

Most of them, particularly the more elaborate ones, have only about a million hook and eye closures on them. It takes forever to get into them in the first place.

Would have been safer in a lake,a pond or a pool.

As for whoever thought of this,he or she lacked common sense.

Yes and, in my mind, I keep picturing this trendy 'perfect shot' as being the driving force behind this reckless behaviour.

To me it epitomizes what stupid things people can put priorities on. And I find that frustrating, because this tragedy didn't need to happen at all.

It is a tragic waste of a life. And for what, a simple photograph.

 

[JLM]

Most of them, particularly the more elaborate ones, have only about a million hook and eye closures on them. It takes forever to get into them in the first place.

Well that should certainly be a wake up call and the smart manufacturers will start using velcro!

(And the groom might appreciate it later in the evening)

 

[Ron in Regina]

Well that should certainly be a wake up call and the smart manufacturers will start using velcro!

(And the groom might appreciate it later in the evening)

Yeahhhh.....no. Wedding Dresses (many of them) are fantasy things from
a girl's childhood. They (I'm assuming) have pictured the thing for years in
many instances....& that didn't include an emergency exit with velcro.

 

[SLM]

Well that should certainly be a wake up call and the smart manufacturers will start using velcro!

If anything it should be a wake up call not to take risky pictures for the sake of being part of a trend.

(And the groom might appreciate it later in the evening)

All good things are worth waiting for.

Yeahhhh.....no. Wedding Dresses (many of them) are fantasy things from
a girl's childhood. They (I'm assuming) have pictured the thing for years in
many instances....& that didn't include an emergency exit with velcro.

No the emergency exit velcro rip it off wedding dress would probably be more of a guy fantasy than a girl's fantasy. LOL.

 

[B00Mer]

I heard a wedding compared to a funeral a few time, but to go to your own.. sad..

Sorta like Gay marriage..

If a heterosexual man can get married and be miserable for life, why not allow homosexual couples have the same misery.

 

[MapleDog]

I heard a wedding compared to a funeral a few time, but to go to your own.. sad..

Sorta like Gay marriage..

If a heterosexual man can get married and be miserable for life, why not allow homosexual couples have the same misery.

Yes they too have the rights to enjoy everything like heteros,like in the divorce,who gets the house,who gets the car and who gets the bills for those. :lol:

 

[spaminator]

New bride dies after waterfall plunge

QMI Agency

First posted: Friday, August 24, 2012 04:51 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, August 25, 2012 01:15 PM EDT

RAWDON, QUE. - A "trash the dress" photo session turned into a tragedy Friday afternoon when a new bride drowned in the river of the Dorwin waterfalls north of Montreal.

Maria Pantazopoulos, 30, entered the river for the photo shoot around 2 p.m. and her wedding dress absorbed the water and weighed her down.

"She wanted to enter the water with her dress for the photos," said photographer Louis Pagakis. "I asked her if she knew how to swim and she said yes."

Pagakis said he tried to pull her out of the water but the wedding dress was too heavy.

Provincial police spokesman Ronald McInnis said the 30-year-old's body was found around 6 p.m., about 50 to 100 feet away from where she fell.

The woman was at the falls participating in the photo session where brides wear their gowns in areas they wouldn't normally on their wedding day.

Pantazopoulos was a real estate agent from Laval, Que., just north of Montreal. She was married on June 9, McInnis said.

A witness told QMI Agency the bride was in her wedding dress, standing on a rock in the water, when she slipped and was carried away by the current.

"She was Anglophone, and she started screaming, 'Help!'" the witness said.

Pantazopoulos' husband was not with her during the shoot.

Police said witnesses were brought to hospital and treated for shock.

New bride dies after waterfall plunge | Canada | News | Toronto Sun

Drowned bride couldn't hang on any longer

QMI Agency

First posted: Sunday, August 26, 2012 04:25 PM EDT | Updated: Monday, August 27, 2012 03:58 PM EDT

MONTREAL - "I can't anymore, it's too heavy," were the last words of Maria Pantazopoulos before she let go of the photographer and drowned in a river north of Montreal Friday afternoon.

The recently married 30-year-old was in her wedding dress having her pictures taken by photographer Louis Pagakis. They were shooting by the river's edge at around 2 p.m., in the town of Rawdon, Que., about 75 km north of Montreal.

Pagakis' wife, Anouk Benzacar, spoke on behalf of her husband to QMI Agency on Saturday. Benzacar was not at the river Friday, neither was Pantazopoulos' husband, Billy.

Billy and Pantazopoulos were married in June.

Benzacar said she was friends with Pantazopoulos, who wanted to get rid of the wedding dress in a stylish way.

The trendy phenomenon is called "trash the dress," where women find creative ways to get rid of their wedding dresses. Many married woman take photos of their dress-destroying escapades.

Pantazopoulos hired Pagakis to take photos of her trashing her wedding outfit.

"At one point, she told him, 'I want you to take some photos of me floating in the water'," Benzacar said.

Soon after entering the water, Pantazopoulos realized the weight of her wet dress was pulling her under, Benzacar said.

Benzacar said Pagakis jumped in the water to save Pantazopoulos, but the wedding dress was dragging both of them down.

"She was screaming and scratching and trying to stay above water," Benzacar said. "(Louis) tried to swim with her, but she was pulling him down. She was too heavy. He couldn't breathe anymore."

The dress, saturated in water, would have weighed at least 100 pounds, said provincial policeman Jean-Michel Masse.

"It was like an anvil," Masse said.

Provincial police told QMI Agency that swimming is forbidden in that part of the river due to the fast currents.

Police found Pantazopoulos' body around 6 p.m. Friday.

Leeza Pouhoulidis, a friend of Pantazopoulos' family and who spoke on behalf of relatives, told QMI Agency that the family is devastated.

"Her husband, Billy, and her mother, are destroyed," Pouhoulidis said.

Pouhoulidis said Pantazopoulos and Billy had just bought a home in Laval, Que., just north of Montreal, and they wanted to start a family immediately.

"She was small, but very strong mentally and physically," Pouhoulidis Said. "She loved to have fun. She loved life."

Drowned bride couldn't hang on any longer | Canada | News | Toronto Sun

Trash-the-dress bride’s drowning preventable

Sarah Belisle, QMI Agency

First posted: Monday, August 27, 2012 02:40 PM EDT | Updated: Monday, August 27, 2012 03:10 PM EDT

MONTREAL - A friend of a woman who drowned in her wedding dress during a photo shoot north of Montreal says the woman's death could have been prevented by barriers at the river's edge.

Maria Pantazopoulos, 30, fell into the water during a 'trash-the-dress' photo shoot in Rawdon, Que., and drowned when the soaked garment weighed her down.

Her family is demanding that authorities block off access to the river near Dorwin Falls, 75 km north of Montreal.

"If Dorwin Falls is so dangerous, they should put up a fence," said family spokeswoman Leeza Pouhoulidis. "They should protect people. It's not enough to have a small sign."

The sign warns that swimming is prohibited but the warnings are routinely ignored by swimmers.

"This isn't the first time someone has been hurt or killed here," says Pouhoulidis. "We're talking about human lives. It's a life that's been destroyed, so have all those people around Maria."

Town councilor Jacqueline Zara says she and her colleagues should examine the security issue at their next meeting.

Zara says barricades and increased patrols are just some of the options.

"What happened is terrible," said Zara. "That's what it takes sometimes to remind people of the danger."

Raynald Hawkins, CEO of the Lifesaving Society, tells QMI that authorities could install life preservers to help people who fall into the water, something a coroner suggested just two weeks ago.

Trash-the-dress bride?s drowning preventable | Canada | News | Toronto Sun

 

[Nuggler]

8O""She was Anglophone, and she started screaming, 'Help!'" the witness said"

So, if she had yelled "aide moi", they would have saved her??

Sad.