12 children recovering after Cultus Lake Waterpark incident as park remains closed

Twelve kids are recovering after an electrical incident at Cultus Lake Waterpark on Monday.

Just after 11 a.m., a group of children were lined up for the Zero – 60 Speedway slide when they suffered some injuries.

“There’s a queuing area at the bottom of that ride with railing and when they made contact with that, that’s where the incident occurred for a brief time,” Andrew Steuneberg, general manager for the waterpark, said on Monday. “That’s the anomaly that they seem to be investigating right now.”

It has not been divulged exactly what happened to cause the injuries, but BC Hydro confirmed it was an electrical issue at the park and that it originated on the “customer’s side” of the electrical service.

Ten of the children injured were on a field trip from Minnekhada Middle School in Port Coquitlam, B.C.

The waterpark is now closed for at least the next 48 hours while an investigation proceeds to find out exactly what happened.

“We’re not going to open again until we’ve completely ruled this out and not just to our own satisfaction, but to the technical safety authority’s satisfaction as well,” Steuneberg added.

Officials with Technical Safety BC, which oversees waterparks in the province, are also investigating.

Const. Brad Holditch, media relations officer with the Upper Fraser Valley RCMP Regional Detachment, said in an update on Tuesday that the incident does not appear to be criminal in nature.

“The 12 individuals that went to hospital, they’re doing well,” he said.