Deadly ride at COP may not be the first time people rode the course after hours

Authorities investigating after deaths at Canada Olympic Park.

A former bobsleigh athlete says former employees of Canada Olympic Park have often slipped into the park after hours to play on the hill and track.

Louis Poirier has been down the track hundreds of times while training in bobsleigh, and knows many of the people who train and work at Canada Olympic Park.

“I know that I've heard of it from people that were my age that they did it when they were teenagers,” he said.  “When I was an athlete at COP I know that the staff there was very much working to make sure that that wasn't happening anymore, so I don't know how successful they were at that but I know that it was always a concern that this kind of an accident could happen."

Poirier says WinSport was aware that people were getting in and were trying to keep it from happening. WinSport has a policy against employees using the park after hours.

Two teens, Jordan and Evan Caldwell, were killed early Saturday, February 6, 2016 after taking a homemade sled down the bobsleigh track and crashing into a gate that separates that track from the luge track. Five other teens were injured in the crash. The Caldwells were previous employees at Canada Olympic Park.

Poirier says the gate the boys slammed into was heavy and unforgiving.

“It’s very heavy piece of basically hockey board and a lot of heavy steel and I’ve walked by it many times and it’s heavy enough that when we're coming down in a bobsleigh track if we bounce off it, it doesn’t budge," he said.

The bobsleigh and luge tracks are closed while the investigation continues, as well as the road that runs up the hill through the park.