A Kansas waterslide billed as the world’s tallest remains off-limits as authorities try to figure out how a state lawmaker’s 10-year-old son died of a neck injury while riding it.
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A witness to the tragedy has revealed some of the gruesome details surrounding the boy’s death.
She left the park before the incident that led to the boy’s death, Pettey said in a telephone interview, adding that relatives of hers who stayed behind at the park had seen blood on the slide. Castaneda said he had ridden the slide earlier in the day with his cousin’s 14-year-old daughter.
The state, though, has no direct jurisdiction over parks like Schlitterbahn.
A spokesman for police in Kansas City, Kansas, says the death of a boy killed while riding a waterslide at a local water park is considered a criminal investigation because a death was involved.
Caleb Schwab was riding with two adult women, to whom he was not related, police said.
She said it was appropriate for Schlitterbahn, which operates five US water parks, to investigate alongside the police and fire department.
The state requested documentation from Schlitterbahn “to ensure all safety requirements have been followed”. It’s unclear when the last inspection was conducted and what it found.
Verrückt is now closed as the incident is still under investigation. All rides at the water park are inspected daily before opening, Schlitterbahn said in a statement.
Another case, involving the park’s Boogie Bahn surfing ride, was filed in Wyandotte County District Court by Robert Boepple in May 2014. And more than 85 million people visit water parks in the USA annually, the group said, adding that fatal injuries are “extremely rare”.
Regulations adopted by the department in May 2010 require only that the owners of permanent amusement rides retain records for them for the state’s possible inspection, but only for a single year. Those showed more than 4,200 people a year taken to emergency rooms to be treated for scrapes, concussions, broken limbs, spinal injuries and other such injuries suffered on public waterslides.
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Without specifically mentioning waterslides, Kansas statutes define an amusement ride as any mechanical or electrical conveyance for the goal of giving its passengers amusement, pleasure, thrills or excitement. Such rides, by statute, commonly are Ferris wheels, carousels, parachute towers, bungee jumps and roller coasters. “KDOL [Kansas Department of Labor] is acting to ensure full compliance with this and other provisions of the act and associated administrative regulations”. But if they were, he said, “they were for very insignificant amounts of money”. Alabama, Mississippi, Nevada, South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah do not regulate amusement parks on a state level.
