The City of Ottawa has concluded that the hill at Mooney’s Bay Park is not safe for sledding and will install a “sturdy temporary seasonal fence” to discourage people from tobogganing this winter.
Eleven months after an 11-year-old girl died in a toboggan accident on the popular Ottawa hill, the city has released a review of the incident and subsequent actions to improve safety at Mooney’s Bay and other toboggan hills in the city.
Jose Abi Asal was sledding with his family on December 27 when the sled he was on crashed into a pole at the foot of the hill. The girl died of her injuries in hospital.
After the incident, city officials placed barricades, tree pads and signs on the hill and conducted an inspection of the Mooney Bay sledding area. Mooney’s Bay Hill was removed from the list of approved sledding hills in 2017 and signs were placed at the top and bottom of the hill to indicate that sledding is prohibited.
In a memorandum to council, Recreation, Culture and Services general manager Dan Chenier says that after the child’s death in January, a Community Risk Assessment (MRA) was conducted, a risk analysis was conducted and staff prepared a final report.
“Which concludes that due to the size and steepness of the hill, along with the multiple hazards found at the bottom of each area of the hill, there is no area of the hill that offers an acceptable level of risk for sled use,” Chenier said.
Chenier tells the council the city will install a “sturdy temporary seasonal fence” at Mooney’s Bay this winter to discourage sledding.
In addition to the review by the outside consultant, a regional review by the medical examiner was conducted, which provided five recommendations to the city following the fatal toboggan accident.
Chenier says an internal task force of officials, using all the information gathered and the medical examiner’s recommendations, conducted a comprehensive review to broadly study the sledding program and improve safety.
A list of 10 recommendations was developed, which Chenier said are intended to “minimize the recurrence of such incidents and improve, where reasonably practicable, the overall safety of the sledding program” in the city. The recommendations will be implemented over the winter, with the exception of amendments to the Parks and Facilities Bylaw, which require council approval.
Here is the list of 10 recommendations that includes fencing at Mooney’s Bay Hill.
- Issue a “sledding advisory” during periods of inclement weather
- Changes to the Parks and Facilities Regulations to allow sledding only in designated areas of municipal parks
- Development of standardized protective equipment, products and materials to increase safety
- Undertake an annual review and update of the sledding hill information on GeoOttawa and Ottawa.ca
- Apply comprehensive protective measures on unapproved hills where sledding is known to occur
- Conduct annual inspections of all approved hills
- Create a descriptor system for sledding hills on Ottawa.ca that shows the caliber of the hill and provides updates on conditions and what to look out for
- Install strong temporary seasonal fencing at Mooney’s Bay to discourage sledding
- Partner with Ottawa Public Health to create an annual safe sledding marketing campaign
- Post helmet use signs at all approved sledding locations
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