Calypso Water Park found guilty of six safety violations
Andrew Seymour, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: April 13, 2015, Last Updated: April 13, 2015 4:47 PM EDT
One water slide at Calypso Theme Water Park posed a danger to its riders, and another was supervised by attendants “flagrantly lacking” in knowledge of how to properly run it, an Ottawa justice of the peace ruled Monday.
Justice of the Peace Julie Lauzon found the Limoges-area water park guilty of six of 11 charges it faced under Ontario’s Technical Standards and Safety Act.
The guilty verdicts included convictions for operating the Bobsleigh slide in an unsafe manner and failing to ensure staff were properly trained on June 19, 2012. Calypso was also guilty of failing to report incidents or shut down the Steamer slide after a series of tube flips in the summer of 2011 that left several riders injured.
The park originally faced 20 charges, but a prosecutor withdrew nine charges during the trial. The park was found not guilty of another five.
In a statement Monday, Calypso said it was “disappointed” with Lauzon’s ruling. Calypso said safety is a top priority at the water park.
The verdict followed a lengthy trial during which several riders testified about crashes on the park’s slides that left them injured.
They included a collision on the Bobsleigh that Lauzon said was “absolutely preventable” had the slide’s operators been properly trained. Lauzon said employees prematurely sent a tube down the slide, causing a collision with a second tube that resulted in rider Marek Strelec’s being thrown from the slide onto the concrete below and knocked unconscious.
Lauzon also found the park failed to shut down the Steamer slide or report a serious accident on July 28, 2011, that broke one of rider Sophie St. Jacques’s vertebra in two places and put her in a halo vest for four months. St. Jacques was injured after her tube flipped as it exited the Steamer’s round, toilet-like bowl. Another rider testified to having suffered a broken collarbone in a similar flip about a month later.
It was part of what Lauzon noted was a trend of incidents on the Steamer, which she found posed an “immediate hazard” to its riders. In a one-month period in 2011, Lauzon said, there was 10 Steamer injuries, seven of which were flips and two that resulted in spinal injuries. However, the Technical Standards Safety Authority wasn’t notified about the incidents until September.
The TSSA shut down the ride, but by then the water park had already closed for the season.
Calypso was acquitted of three charges related to a lack of supervision on a children’s water playground known as the Pirate’s Aquaplay. Lauzon found there were too many ambiguities and discrepancies in the supervision requirements, making it too difficult for either the court or Calypso to ascertain how many attendants were necessary.
Calypso was also found not guilty of failing to properly configure the end run out of the Bobsleigh ride after two riders were thrown from their rafts after hitting the end of the slide. Lauzon found there was a question of whether the configuration was to blame since no cause for the crash was ever determined.
Calypso’s lawyer Lawrence Greenspon said outside of court that the public has nothing to fear riding the park’s slides. The park has made significant changes since the summer of 2012, he said, including “dramatically improved” training and the use of a light and sensor dispatch system on the Bobsleigh slide.
The water park has long ago addressed a structural problem with the Steamer, he said, and has also revamped protocols for reporting incidents on their slides.
“What I would say to the general public is come to Calypso. It is a safe and fun adventure experience,” said Greenspon.
A sentencing hearing has been set for June 12, a little more than a week after the park is set to open for the 2015 season.
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