The 10-year-old son of a state lawmaker died of a neck injury while riding the world’s tallest water slide in Kansas City, Kansas, police said on Monday.
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Caleb Schwab was on the 168-foot-tall waterslide at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City when he was fatally injured Sunday. The boy was found dead at the bottom of the attraction in a pool, according to Time. Two women on the slide sustained minor facial injuries.
Caleb Schwab was killed at a Kansas City waterpark Sunday.
When it happened, I’m thinking thank God that it wasn’t my best friend because I’m the one who invited him there that day and I would have felt like it was my fault.
Prosapio said the Verrückt ride wouldn’t reopen this season, which ends September 5.
She said the boy’s brother, who had witnessed the incident, told a theme-park worker: “I just saw my little brother die because of one of your attractions”.
Caleb’s family, who attend LifeMission Church in Olathe, Kansas, have been getting an outpouring of support since the accident.
Caleb was grouped with two adult women on the Verrückt water slide around 2:30 p.m. Police said they were investigating the case as an accident. He said people shouldn’t be risking their lives in having fun at an amusement park.
Police say they will not be conducting any interviews or news conferences related to this incident at this time.
Kansas’ Amusement Ride Act says fixed-site rides must be checked at least once a year by certified inspectors, and the state can audit those records. It was unclear whether the party met the weight requirement.
The commission said Monday that contributions to the campaign to help Rep. Scott Schwab’s family fall under the state’s $40-a-year limit on gifts from lobbyists to legislators.
Even from before the 2014 opening of the ride, which was repeatedly delayed, there were issues.
“We have long experience in building water park rides and developing new technology”, he told CNN in 2014. Two media sneak preview days in 2014 were cancelled because of problems with a conveyor system that hauls 100-pound (45-kg) rafts to the top of the slide.
Mr Castaneda said he had taken a ride on the slide earlier in the day with his cousin’s 14-year-old daughter.
Verruckt, which is German for “insane”, is billed as the world’s tallest water slide.
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Like other amusement and water parks in Kansas, the state’s Labor Department allows Schlitterbahn to perform its own safety inspections using inspectors licensed by the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials (NAARSO), according to Barbara Hersh, a Labor Department spokeswoman.
