aleb Schwab, 10, tragically lost his life while riding the Verrückt waterslide at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City in 2016
A 10-year-old boy tragically fell victim to the ‘world’s tallest water slide’ almost a decade ago.
Caleb Schwab went on the Verrückt waterslide – translating to ‘Crazy’ or ‘Insane’ in German – at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City on 7 August 2016.
Verrückt was once the world’s tallest waterslide, standing at 168 feet (51 meters) and capable of speeds of 70 miles per hour.
The way it worked is riders would board a raft and plunge down a near-vertical drop before being pushed over a second hill.
It was the tallest waterslide in the world at the time (The Atlantic)
On the day of the accident, however, Caleb’s raft became airborne and struck a metal hoop and netting that was intended to keep riders inside.
The impact caused fatal injuries.
Caleb was also joined by two women in his raft who suffered a broken jaw and a face fracture.
Investigations into the incident showed that the ride had serious design flaws and wasn’t tested properly.
It appears that engineering standards were overlooked in favour of breaking the world record.
POV footage below shows the dangers of the slide which took the child’s life.
The Schwab family received £15.8m ($20m) from numerous parties, including Schlitterbahn. Meanwhile, the two other passengers also made undisclosed court settlements.
Creators of the slide, Jeff Henry and John Schooley, were initially arrested on a charge of second-degree murder and 17 further crimes.
Judge Robert Burns said: “The court has grave doubts as to whether the irregularities and improprieties improperly influenced the grand jury and ultimately bolstered its decision to indict these defendants.
“Quite simply, these defendants were not afforded the due process protections and fundamental fairness Kansas law requires.”
Nathan Truesdell for The Atlantic made a documentary about the horrifying ordeal in 2019, titled The Water Slide.
“My first thought was that it must have been a freak accident—what a horrible, horrible story,” Nathan said.
“But once I took a closer look, I started to realise how complicated this story really was, and how this could have happened to anyone who went down that slide.
“There wasn’t a lot of science or ride engineering involved in the testing and design.
“They were sending sandbags down and basically hoping that they didn’t fly off of the slide.
“The netting that ultimately ended up killing the child was added to prevent the rafts from flying off of the slide completely.”Featured Image Credit: ABC News/Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts
Topics: US News, Theme Park
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