He drowned in a Tacoma lagoon. Did Metro Parks ignore the dangers of whirlpools?
Three sons of a man who drowned at Titlow Park in July are suing Metro Parks Tacoma, alleging that the agency failed to improve or warn the public about the dangerous condition caused by a culvert between Puget Sound and a lagoon, court records show.
Robert Logan Jr. of University Place died on July 8 after a whirlpool sucked him into the culvert leading to the lagoon, according to the lawsuit and The News Tribune’s previous reporting. Logan, 68, had a pulse when he was pulled from the pond by firefighters, but he later was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Logan’s sons, including two acting as personal representatives of his estate, sued Metro Parks, which owns and operates Titlow Park & Lodge, for wrongful death on Jan. 3. Attorney Ashton Dennis is representing the plaintiffs in the suit filed in Pierce County Superior Court.
“Ultimately, this was a completely unnecessary tragedy. It was a known hazard. It was obvious,” Dennis told The News Tribune in a Monday interview. “Metro Parks certainly should have been able to prevent this, based on what was seen everyday when there was a high tide.”
A spokesperson for Metro Parks said the district couldn’t comment on matters of pending litigation.
On the day he died, Logan and a friend entered the sound south of Titlow Beach, seeking reprieve from temperatures exceeding 90 degrees. After they traveled north, Logan exited a personal float at Titlow Beach, where there was “no apparent danger,” according to the suit.
Authorities said that the water was chest-high at the time.
Unbeknownst to Logan and anyone else, according to the suit, a whirlpool was pulling water from Puget Sound into Titlow Lagoon. The whirlpool’s force sucked Logan under the surface, through a culvert pipe and into the lagoon.
The complaint alleged that Metro Parks knew of the whirlpool and suction created when tide was coming in toward the lagoon but didn’t warn the public or address the hazardous condition.
“The (two) culvert pipes that were designed to, and did, cause water to pass from the Sound to the lagoon created a dangerous whirlpool in certain tide changes,” the suit said.
According to previous News Tribune reporting, the concrete culvert is roughly 100 feet long and four feet wide, running underneath two BNSF Railway tracks and a walking trail on a bank. At high tide, which was occurring when Logan died, the lagoon draws seawater from the sound. It’s drained at low tide.
For more than a decade, there’s been a desire from Metro Parks, the city of Tacoma, BNSF Railway and environmental groups to replace the culvert with a train trestle to return the lagoon to its natural state and improve fish habitat, The News Tribune previously reported. A lack of money has held up plans.
The railroad tracks, culvert pipes and bank were designed and installed at some point after 1931, the lawsuit noted. It alleged that Metro Parks benefited from the culvert because it allowed the lagoon to be larger and placed more prominence on the focal point of the park.
Pinpointing culvert ownership has proven to be difficult because records that far back are sketchy. In July, Metro Parks said it was confident that it didn’t own nor maintain the culvert. The city of Tacoma, which in the summer was investigating ownership, didn’t have any new information to provide Tuesday, according to a spokesperson.
Metro Parks is being accused of negligence for allegedly permitting and encouraging the public to use the beach for recreation without warning of whirlpools.
Logan’s three sons were tight with their father, according to Dennis.
“They’re a very close family and this just rocked their world more than you can put into words,” he said.
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages to be proven at trial, legal fees and any other relief determined appropriate by the court.
