TACOMA, Wash. — A man died after he was sucked into a whirlpool in Tacoma’s Titlow Park last summer.
His family says his death was preventable and they have filed a lawsuit against the city.
“This family lost a father, a grandfather, a friend and that’s just horrific and completely unnecessary,” said family attorney Ashton Dennis.
Three brothers are suing Metro Parks Tacoma, saying the agency was aware of hazardous conditions that led to their father’s drowning.
According to the lawsuit, 68-year-old Robert Logan Junior of University Place, went with a friend to float the water in Puget Sound on a hot day last July.
They ended up at Titlow Beach where they decided to get off their flotation devices and get out of the water.
Seconds later, Logan was sucked into a whirlpool.
“Robert’s friend was first to exit – thereafter he turned around and Robert was gone in the whirlpool,” said Dennis.
Logan was sucked into a culvert, which runs under railway tracks and drains into a lagoon on the other side, where he was pulled out of the water, but later died at the hospital.
“He was a good swimmer. He was sober and he wasn’t able to see this danger. Nobody in his position would have – would’ve been impossible,” said Dennis.
The lawsuit accuses Metro Parks Tacoma of knowing about the hazardous conditions and failing to warn people about the danger – though a sign went up after the drowning.
“A simple grate over the culvert would have prevented this from happening. Second, if you’re going to have this wild danger there, you need to warn people, put buoys up or signs, which they have now, to explain, ‘Hey don’t be in this area,’ but they certainly didn’t have it that day,” said Dennis.
KIRO 7 reached out to Metro Parks Tacoma, which declined to comment on the pending litigation.
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