sleds, became notorious for causing injuries. The stick that was supposed to control the sled's speed in practice offered just two options on the infrequently maintained vehicles: extremely slow, and a speed described by one former employee as "death awaits". The chutes in which the sleds traveled were made of concrete, fiberglass, and asbestos, which led to serious abrasions on riders who took even mild falls. The tendency of guests to ride in bathing suits made the problem worse. The path underneath the chairlift resulted in verbal harassment and spitting from passengers going up for their turn. Guests riding the lift would also often knock the sleds off, slowing down operations as employees had to retrieve them. The slide was the site of the first fatality at the park in 1980: 19-year-old George Larsson, Jr., who had previously been a ski-lift operator at Vernon Valley, was thrown from the slide when his car jumped the track, and his head struck a rock. After several days in a coma, he died. Action Park said that Larsson was an employee, it was nighttime and also raining when the accident happened. They also said that as an employee, his death did not need to be reported to state regulators. In the 2020 documentary Class Action Park, Larsson's mother and brother said that was incorrect, accusing park management of using the story of Larsson being an employee previously, to get out of having to report the death. Had state inspectors looked at the site, employees said years later, they would have seen that rocks there, which they had told the park to remove on an earlier visit, remained. Hay bales at the curves were put in place in an attempt to cushion the impact of guests whose sleds jumped the track, a frequent occurrence. While park officials regularly asserted its safety, the slide was responsible for the bulk of the accidents, injuries, lawsuits, and state citations for safety violations in the early years of the park. According to state records, in 1984 and 1985, the alpine slide produced 14 fractures and 26 head injuries. When Intrawest reopened the water park as Mountain Creek in spring 1998, they announced the slide would remain open for one final season, but riders were required to wear helmets and kneepads. The last day of the slide's operation was September 6 of that year, the day before the park