Instead of thrills, Colwood’s Quarry Park playground has delivered spills for some of its visitors.
Less than two months after it opened to much fanfare in April, hailed as the Capital Region District’s largest playground, concerns have been raised about the safety of the metal spiral tube slide, attached to the park’s three-level castle.
Mom of two Sarah Lalonde broke a leg June 2 using the slide with her four-year-old son on her lap. Days later on June 7, a three-year-old boy was reported to have suffered the same fate.
Questions were also raised about the slide’s safety the day after it opened.
Replying to a City of Colwood Facebook post April 19, one person warned the slide “seemed to be hurting a lot of kids.”
“The first section is very steep and your feet seem to get caught and pulled under you at the first corner,” they wrote. “Quite a few twisted ankles and knees along with some goose eggs from being spun around.”
In response, the city’s parks team closed the slide Wednesday (June 11), while they determine next steps.
According to communications manager Sandra Russell, the city has been monitoring feedback about the new playground and working with PATH Developments and the playground provider on "some retrofits to encourage safe play, as well as creating additional signage to support safety."
She said “no formal reports of injury” had been received by the city until Wednesday (June 11).
"The slide is designed (and received safety certification) for kids from five to 12 and is signed as such, but it's clear more needs to be done," said Russell in a emailed statement.
A social media post by the city announcing the closure, also notes the slide "may be too fast for younger children and not appropriately sized for adults to use safely."
The news has come as a relief to mom Lalonde, who describes the slide as something more suited to a ride at a theme park.
“It felt like you were on a roller-coaster … like you're about to turn upside down, but you're in a slide,” she said. “That's how fast you were going … roller-coaster speed.”
It was son Xavier’s reluctance to use the slide alone, that prompted Lalonde to suggest she travel down with him on her lap.
But the experience quickly turned into a nightmare for the pair.
“We went down so much faster I thought the slide was going to go down,” said the mom.
It was on the first bend when Lalonde heard her right leg “crack and snap” when it hit the wall of the slide. Next, Xavier fell forward, “bouncing down the rest of the slide” with his mom close behind.
At the bottom of the slide, Lalonde says she fell on top of her son, who was thankfully not injured.
But that was not the case for her.
“My leg was half bent in the wrong direction,” she said. “I couldn't move, I was in shock and in a ton of pain. I was screaming bloody murder for about 40 minutes until the paramedics came.”
At the hospital, Lalonde was told her shin bone was broken in two places and she had a hairline fracture near her ankle.
Now recovering at home after surgery, Lalonde says doctors have told her it could be up to a year until the leg is fully healed.
"I'm worried that more kids are going to get hurt or adults, because I know a lot of people do go down with their kids, to make sure their kids are safe – that's my big concern," she said prior to the city's decision to close the slide.
