Corroded and missing bolts were found on one of the fiberglass slides at Birch Bay Waterslides after a man suffered serious injuries last August on a slide called the Hairpin, according to a new county investigation report obtained by Cascadia Daily News.
An 18-by-50-inch section of a fiberglass panel also ripped away from a “splash guard,” an unreinforced portion of the slide that gives it more height and helps riders veer through sharp turns, a Feb. 29 Injury Event Investigation Summary from Whatcom County Health and Community Services stated.
The unidentified 43-year-old man, 6 feet tall and 290 pounds, suffered lacerations on his left foot and lower right leg when his legs passed through the broken panel in the slide’s turn, according to a separate injury report the county submitted in September to the state Department of Health.
With its operating permit suspended, the water park’s prospects for opening this summer remain uncertain, as county officials continue to await requested documents from park managers.
County inspectors may never determine exactly why the nearly 40-year-old slide failed on that late-summer afternoon — and in any case, that’s not their job. The health department’s authority extends only to the park’s operating permit. According to the inspection report, officials initially suspended the park’s permit to operate the park’s signature attraction, the four “tower” slides, including the Hairpin, that start from the same platform. This decision came after officials observed the damaged slide during an initial inspection on Aug. 29, 2023.
Next, in early September, health officials suspended the park’s operational permit fully because the water park’s managers did not immediately provide 2023 inspection documents, according to the Feb. 29 report.
Park officials still have not provided all the inspection reports and other records the county has requested, including inspection reports from the past five years. County officials can’t direct water park managers on how to reinstate their permit until the county reviews all the requested documents, health department Communications Specialist Marie Duckworth said.
At minimum, park staff will need to repair the damage to the Hairpin slide and hire engineers to inspect the slides inside and out, to ensure they are structurally sound, county officials said.
Park ownership, who operate under the name Birch Bay Jun Yu Waterslides LLC, could not be reached for comment. Park manager Iain Buchanan said in an email Monday that his staff requested a meeting with the health department to follow up on its Feb. 29 report. Buchanan declined to go into specifics about the accident.
“As you probably understand, there still may be some questions that we are unable to answer at this time,” he said.
What the investigation revealed
Tom Kunesh, the health department official who wrote the Feb. 29 report, said in an interview that no witnesses reported seeing the injury as it happened. So it was unclear whether the panel was already missing, or whether the man broke it himself.
Park staff told county investigators they had observed no damage to the Hairpin’s splash guard prior to the accident, and they didn’t know why the splash guard panel had broken, according to the report.
During Kunesh’s inspection on Feb. 2, a number of potential structural flaws were found near the turn where the injury occurred.
Kunesh found corroded or missing bolts near the broken panel on the Hairpin, and a panel just above the accident site was loose, the report said. Damage to the bolts was most apparent in the southwest-facing portions of the slide, which are most exposed to the weather.
“There were fasteners that had heads missing, or where you couldn’t see the threads anymore on the bolts,” Kunesh said in an interview.
“There were a couple places where repair had apparently occurred in the past, indicating there was some damage in the past,” Kunesh added. “Iain (the park manager) and his staff couldn’t tell me anything about that, at least at this point.”
As for a missing fastener at the broken panel, visible in photographs included with his report, Kunesh said he couldn’t tell whether the bolt was torn off by impact during the accident, or whether it was already missing before the injured rider approached that turn.
“I was going to leave that to an engineer to determine,” he said.
“Based on our observations, there is a concern that we need the owner of the slides to address,” Kunesh said, then spelled out that concern as a question: “Does that apparently degraded hardware adversely affect the structural integrity of the slide elements? And what will they do in the future to assure that the integrity of those elements is sound?”
The county report stated the findings “indicate a need for a structural integrity assessment of the exterior portions of the slide deck and splash guards in addition to the interior [of] the slide decks, splash guards and support structures by a qualified third party.”
Were the slides properly inspected?
State code doesn’t mandate how often a water park must be inspected for safety — only that park owners are responsible for conducting such inspections “routinely.”
At Birch Bay Waterslides, staff walk the length of each slide about once a week during the season, looking for rough areas, cracks, gaps or leaks, the county’s report said. Staff also make repairs as needed.
The report noted that the park does not keep records of these weekly inspections or any minor repairs.
More comprehensive annual inspections are handled by private companies. Park staff told county investigators that Kingworks, a structural engineering firm based in Bellingham, inspects the concrete, steel and wooden support structures. A national company, Safe Slide Restoration, conducts yearly inspections of the fiberglass slides.
As part of its investigation, county health officials asked park staff for the inspection reports from both companies, dating back to 2018. As of Tuesday, March 5, Birch Bay Waterslides had provided only one of the 10 requested inspections: the Kingworks report from 2022. The park also sent the county a copy of the 2017 Kingworks report.
Birch Bay Waterslides provided two documents from Safe Slides, but they were not inspection reports. Rather, they were contracts for repairs proposed prior to the start of the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Both years, Safe Slides proposed recoating the slide interiors, to restore a smooth surface. Neither contract made any mention of work to repair bolts or other areas on the slides’ exteriors.
It wasn’t clear from the county’s investigation whether any of the park’s hired inspectors were looking at the exteriors of the slides.
Kingworks inspects structures supporting the slides, but not the slides themselves. And water park management told county investigators only that Safe Slides focused on the interior areas of slides, “to assure a smooth sliding surface.”
Safe Slides did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The 14.5-acre park at 4874 Birch Bay Lynden Road closed for the day shortly after the accident on Aug. 25, 2023, with all guests getting refunds. Park officials announced on Facebook later that day that it would close for the season and refund season pass holders and those with upcoming reservations. Park management had planned to keep the facility open through Labor Day weekend. In an Aug. 26 update on Facebook, the park acknowledged “an unforeseen accident on one of our main slides. The injury was severe enough to require shutting down the attractions,” the post said.
After becoming injured in the hairpin turn and reaching the pool at the bottom of the slide, the 43-year-old was bleeding so badly, an off-duty nurse on the scene applied tourniquets to his legs. He was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and admitted to intensive care, according to the state injury report.
Five days later, the man remained in intensive care, after two surgeries to repair the damage from his injuries. CDN was unable to obtain recent information on the victim’s condition.
In a January email to CDN, Buchanan struck an upbeat tone about the park’s prospects for opening on time, in late May or early June.
“We are actively engaged in preparation for repairs and improvements, which will be occurring this spring,” he said at the time. “We believe that, with the collaborative efforts of our team and the ongoing support of the community, we will be able to address the concerns raised and welcome guests to a safe and enjoyable environment this summer.”
Ralph Schwartz is a former CDN local government reporter; send tips and information to newstips@cascadiadaily.com.
