A water park ride which fatally launched a young boy into an overhead support is headed for demolition.
The 17-story-tall Verrückt (German for “insane”) waterslide at Kansas City’s Schlitterbahn Water Park was scheduled for demolition as soon as the criminal investigation into the fatal accident was completed.
Investigators have completed their examination and indictments have been handed down.
The Verrückt waterslide was certified as the world’s tallest by The Guinness Book of World Records in April 2014, ahead of its scheduled Memorial Day opening. That opening was delayed due to safety concerns.
“Our correction coefficients were all off. Models didn’t show air and water friction. A lot of our math was based on roller coasters at first, and that didn’t translate to a water slide like this. No one had ever done anything like this before.”
The slide, 168 feet tall and 607 feet long, had a tendency to launch rafts into the air. The ride was redesigned repeatedly in attempts to keep the rafts on the waterslide. Henry claimed the ride was safe shortly before it opened on July 10, 2014.
“Schlitterbahn is a family water park, but this isn’t a family ride. It’s for the thrill seekers of the world, people into extreme adventure.”
Deadly Design Flaws
Ten-year-old Caleb Schwab was killed on August 7, 2016, when the raft he was riding flew into the air and struck some overhead fencing. The two other passengers in the raft, sisters Hannah Barnes and Matraca Baetz, both suffered serious facial injuries, the Mirror reported.The overhead fencing was added to keep rafts from flying off the slide.
Besides the design causing rafts to fly off the slide, there were other safety issues.
Kelsey Friedrichsen and her boyfriend, Josh Foster, were climbing the 264 steps to the Verrückt launch platform when the accident took place.
“That was when my boyfriend said, ‘I think there is someone else.’”
“It looked like he must have somehow been ejected from his seat, bounced around between the netting and the slide and just slid down,” Friedrichsen continued. “He would have fallen down without the raft. It’s kind of like a tube.”
Hopes to Prevent Another Tragedy
Schlitterbahn closed Verrückt immediately and closed the whole water park for two days.Caleb’s father, Scott Schwab, is the state representative for Kansas’ 49th district.
Verrückt was not the only questionable attraction at Schlitterbahn’s Kansas City park. (Schlitterbahn operates parks and resorts at Galveston Island, Texas, Kansas City, Kansas, New Braunfels, Texas, South Padre Island, Texas, and Corpus Christi, Texas.)
When the 2018 season opened on May 25, 11 rides stayed silent—they'd failed to pass state inspections. On July 10, four rides were still uncertified and closed for business.
Indictments and Arrest
On March 23, 2018, A Wyandotte County Grand Jury handed down indictments of the Schlitterbahn park and Tyler Austin Miles, its ex-operations director, on 20 felony charges including involuntary manslaughter, aggravated battery, and reckless endangerment, for allegedly causing Caleb’s death.Also according to the indictment, “Schlitterbahn officials covered up similar incidents in the past.”
The indictment reveals that Verrückt’s design and construction were rushed so that the ride could be ready for the 2016 season.
Safety standards in construction and operation were ignored. Many people involved in different aspects of supplying parts and materials and building the slide protested, but the park pressed forward.
Worst of all, the people in charge of design and construction, Jeff Henry and John Schooley, knew that rafts tended to fly off the track. They made several changes to the slide to stop this, but none were effective.
The park management opted to open the ride to the public knowing that rafts might get airborne and that a raft’s occupants were at risk.
