It’s unclear whether the straps on “Verruckt” – German for “insane” – played any role in Sunday’s death of Caleb Schwab, a Kansas lawmaker’s son. 7, 2016, while riding the Verruckt, a water slide that’s bille.
Advertisement
Before the Verruckt slide opened in 2014, Schlitterbahn head designer John Schooley told CNN, “Our park in Kansas City doesn’t have a height restriction so we made a decision to put it right here”.
(David Strickland/David Strickland via AP).
The regulation of permanent amusement park rides is left to the states, and it’s inconsistent.
Caleb Thomas Schwab died Sunday while riding what is billed as the world’s tallest waterslide.
(AP Photo/Nicholas Clayton, file).
“Since the day he was born, he brought abundant joy to our family and all those he came in contact with”, Rep. Schwab said on Sunday. He was the son of a state legislator.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback says he wants the state to review its regulation of amusement rides following a 10-year-old boy’s death at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas. Authorities have yet to explain how it happened.
Caleb Thomas Schwab died Sunday while riding what is billed as the world’s tallest waterslide. Caleb was seated with two women unrelated to him and who sustained minor facial injuries. Caleb’s parents – Republican state Rep. Scott Schwab and his wife, Michele – have not spoken publicly since the death.
The boy’s funeral was Friday at the LifeMission Church in the family’s hometown of Olathe.
On the 2-year-old waterslide certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s tallest, riders sit in multi-person rafts that begin with the steep drop, followed by a surge up a second hill before a 50-foot descent to a finishing pool.
The governor recalled no issues with the raft’s seatbelt-like straps across the lap and over the shoulder. Each strap is held in place by long Velcro-style straps, not by buckles. Riders hold ropes inside the raft. In a statement, she said “a limited portion” of the park will reopen at midday Wednesday. Although its towering profile greets visitors as they drive through the entrance, access to Verruckt is blocked by a 7-foot-high wooden fence.
In a letter Thursday, a department official told the Schlitterbahn park’s general manager that a post-accident records audit confirmed that non-destructive testing “is not required by the manufacturer of each ride”.
Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio declined to comment on questions related to the accident in Kansas City or the regulation of the park. “No words can express the pain we all feel for this bad tragedy”.
The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission said there have been four fatalities on waterslides since 2010, not including the one in Kansas. The panel’s official report, drafted after an October 2007 hearing, said a Schlitterbahn lobbyist saw “no problem” with lawmakers considering a requirement but added, “the company would like a “Disney exception” for large parks, allowing “company inspection, in conjunction with the state”. “Some of them require visual inspection”.
Kenneth Conrad told WDAF-TV that during his trip down the waterslide previous year with a friend, the friend’s shoulder strap came “completely off”.
Advertisement
“I think they designed this ride, and they figured since stuff was flying out, we better do something to keep people from flying out”, he said.
