(Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star via AP, File). USA Today reports that the slide, in which riders go down a 169-foot drop at 65 miles per hour, and the water park are closed and under investigation.
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(David Strickland/David Strickland via AP).
It emerged today the water slide once carried an age requirement that would have forbidden Caleb from riding – and the attraction faced multiple delays due to safety concerns before opening in 2014.
Kansas City Police said Schwab’s death had been caused by a “fatal neck injury at the end of the ride”.
Caleb Schwab was one of three passengers riding in a boat on the 168ft Verruckt water slide at Schlitterbahn Waterpark, near Kansas City.
Police say two women who also were in the boat – but not related to the boy – sustained minor facial injuries and were treated at area hospitals.
Officers said they had “no idea” how the accident unfolded.
Pettey said in a telephone interview she left the park before the incident that led to the boy’s death.
“It’s being investigated as a criminal case but we are not saying something criminal happened”, Morgan said Tuesday. You know leave church, you go to a water park to be with family and to enjoy.
“Caleb was an incredible young man”, Sprague said.
He told the network that boy appeared to be decapitated.
“I’m really having a tough time. I really am”, said Castaneda, of Kansas City, Kansas.
Each rider must be at least 54 inches tall, and the group’s weight is limited to a total of 400 to 550 pounds.
‘Since the day he was born, he brought abundant joy to our family and all those he came in contact with, ‘ a statement released by the family said. “As we try and mend our home with him no longer with us, we are comforted knowing he believed in his savior, Jesus, and they are forever together now. We will see him another day”, the statement added.
Two other women, he told ABC News, were still strapped into the raft but the first position was empty, and it is likely where Caleb was sitting. Authorities said the boy was found dead at the bottom of the ride in a pool.
The three were taken to a local trauma centre where they were said to be awake, alert and answering questions. Such rides, by statute, commonly are Ferris wheels, carousels, parachute towers, bungee jumps and roller coasters.
Under Kansas law, the state Department of Labor has jurisdiction over amusement parks, which must inspect their rides every 12 months with state officials authorized to conduct random inspections.
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The park is now and the ride will be shutdown pending the investigation.
