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Girl's Toe Cut Off On Slide At Buzzards Bay Park Playground

BOURNE (CBS) – BOURNE (CBS) - There are new questions about whether a serious accident at Buzzard's Bay splash pad and playground could have been prevented.

Town Administrator Thomas Guerino has called a meeting Thursday with all departments involved with the park to determine how a 2-year-old girl was able to lose a toe when she hit a crack on the park's slide.

On Wednesday, the message at the park was clear with the gates locked, a bottom piece of the slide removed, and caution tape wrapped and rewrapped around the slide.

Dee Swan says it was a different story Sunday when she was at the slide with her daughter and there was no caution tape. "There was broken tape towards the top but there was no caution sign around the slide itself," Swan said.

buzzards bay park slide
The girl lost a toe on this slide at Buzzards Bay Park, July 10. (WBZ-TV)

Swan says it looked like the tape had been ripped off. "I went down the slide and realized there was a crack at the bottom of it so that was it," she said.

Guerino says he's trying to get answers. The slide had been on a so-called "punch list" for repairs in the new park that just opened Memorial Day weekend. "If engineers had told us to close it, it would have been closed," said Guerino.

C.J. Ferguson says she was at the park last week with her grandson and nephew and saw the crack as well. But she says the slide was taped off and not being used. "The slide was cracked, that's true. But they made every effort possible to show it wasn't safe and people were not supposed to be on it," she said.

Guerino says he didn't learn about the caution tape being posted until Tuesday and hopes to get some answers at Thursday's meeting.

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