A day after a girl fell into a frigid and partially frozen pond while sledding at Discovery Park, the Bend Park & Recreation District is trying to figure out what — if anything — can be done to prevent something similar from happening in the future.

Sunday afternoon, a 5-year-old girl went in when her sled slid across the ice to an area of open water near the center of the pond. Her 18-year-old baby sitter followed the girl into the pond to rescue her, and both were pulled to safety with the help of multiple bystanders.

Both the baby sitter and the girl were unhurt beyond being extremely cold, Bend Police said in a news release.

Witnesses quickly came to the aid of the baby sitter and the little girl, whom police have not identified.

Opened less than a year ago, Discovery Park was designed and built in cooperation with West Bend Property Co., the developers of NorthWest Crossing. The pond enticed many to play and swim in its waters last summer, prompting the park district to begin regular testing for possible E. coli and total coliform.

The 3-acre pond, up to 15 feet deep in places, sits at the base of a short hill. The hill, largely bare of vegetation, extends past the edge of the pond to the south, where longer and steeper sledding tracks end among boulders in a drainage swale.

To reach the edge of the pond, the girl’s sled crossed an iced-over asphalt path and a narrow strip of landscaping plants. At the site Monday, only two sled tracks passed under a pair of ropes marking the edge of path and continued onto the ice, including the one identified by Phil Kraemer, a Bend resident who witnessed the incident and assisted in the rescue, as marking the young girl’s path.

Jim Figurski, a landscape architect with the district who helped design Discovery Park, said the hill was seeded with grass and planted with small shrubs and trees, but the vegetation is too small to effectively deter sledders.

Park district Executive Director Don Horton said while the hill is not intended for sledding, it’s not prohibited. The district does not operate any properties designated for sledding, he said, but with snow sticking around town for more than a month, district personnel have observed many sledders at Drake, Hollinshead, Juniper, and Al Moody parks.

Horton said the district could look at adding additional signs to the west side of the pond, warning of the dangers of walking or sledding on the ice. Signs are no guarantee there won’t be a recurrence of something like what happened Sunday, he said, and parks are full of features that could be dangerous if used improperly or recklessly.

“I think the challenge is, where do you begin and where do you end when it comes to warning people of hazards?” Horton said.

Horton said in his 14 years in Bend with the park district, he can’t recall another water rescue at a pond on district property. In addition to the pond at Discovery Park, there are ponds at Shevlin and Pine Nursery parks.

Kraemer spoke briefly with Horton while the two were at Discovery Park on Monday morning and suggested a line of hay bales might provide some protection to keep sledders from sliding on to the icy pond.

Kraemer was out for a walk with his wife on the opposite side of the pond when the girl went into the water. He said he’d just told his wife it looked like an exciting yet dangerous sledding hill when he saw the girl’s sled heading toward the center of the pond. The sled tipped forward and dumped the girl into the water, then popped up, he said, floating on the surface.

Eric Klump was also walking nearby and saw splashing out of the corner of his eye. At first he thought it was a dog, but then he saw the baby sitter running across the ice toward the hole.

Klump asked his wife to call 911 and headed for the hole in the ice. He laid down on his belly and reached the sled out to the baby sitter, while Kraemer held on to Klump’s ankles.

Klump said it was hard to distinguish between the land around the lake and the lake itself, and the hole the child and her baby sitter went into was maybe about 15 feet by 10 feet wide.

Kraemer said his wife wrapped the little girl in her coat and carried her to shore, while Klump put the baby sitter in the sled and dragged her across the ice. Klump said the fire department arrived within two to three minutes.

“It happened quickly,” Klump said of the response. “Once the fire trucks showed up, there was nothing much for us to do.”

Witness Diane Allen heard screaming coming from the pond and saw the baby sitter running across the ice and going into the water.

Allen said the baby sitter had “a much harder time getting out.” Though she didn’t see how Klump got her out of the water, Allen went over to the baby sitter once she was out of the water to try to keep her warm and to comfort her.

The baby sitter was scared because she couldn’t feel her arms and legs and was blaming herself for the incident. “I basically just held on to her and hugged her and helped her to breathe until they came,” Allen said.

“I have an 18-year-old myself,” Allen said. “In some ways, 18-year-olds are very mature, and in other ways they’re still growing up. My worry is there’s going to be blame.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com