Caleb Schwab was the son of Rep. Scott Schwab, of Olathe, and his wife, Michele.
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The person was speaking on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about the death of Caleb Schwab Sunday on the “Verruckt” raft ride at the Schlitterbahn WaterPark in Kansas City, Kan.
Sara Craig, 42, said she was slightly uneasy bringing her 14-year-old son Cale and one of his 13-year-old friends to the reopened park.
It was supposed to be just another summer day at the Kansas City water park until Jess Sanford and Melanie Gocke witnessed something that would be imprinted on their minds forever: the death of 10-year-old Caleb Thomas Schwab from a neck injury while riding the world’s tallest water slide. The women were treated for facial injuries.
Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio told The Associated Press outside the park’s entrance Wednesday that the company was not discussing Sunday’s tragedy out of respect for the family.
Verruckt, German for “insane”, featured multi-person rafts that make a 168ft drop at speeds of up to 70mph, followed by a surge up a hump and a 50ft descent to a finishing pool.
The ride was meant to open to the public in May 2014, but this date was pushed back due to tests shown in the video above of rafts carrying sandbags flying off the slide, leading engineers to reconfigure parts of the ride.
Two media sneak preview days in 2014 were also canceled because of problems with a conveyor system that hauls the 100-pound rafts to the top of the slide.
Craig said that during her first trip down the ride with her son and one of his friends, her shoulder restraint came off, something she opted not to report to park workers. “We had many issues on the engineering side”, said Henry, calling Verruckt “dangerous, but it’s a safe dangerous now”, according to USA Today.
The Unified Government of Kansas City, Kansas, and Wyandotte County said it does not inspect the operations of such rides and is responsible only for ensuring they’ve adhered to local building codes.
“They realized that he was dead, so I don’t think they tried to revive him”, Sanford said. It also can degrade with use. Parkgoer Paul Oberhauser told CBS News his belt came off while riding with a friend and his 9-year-old son about two weeks ago.
Verruckt’s 2014 opening repeatedly was delayed, though the operators didn’t explain why.
Without specifically mentioning waterslides, Kansas statutes define an “amusement ride” as any mechanical or electrical conveyance “for the objective of giving its passengers amusement, pleasure, thrills or excitement”.
State law leaves it to the Kansas Department of Labor to adopt rules and regulations relating to certification and inspection of rides, adding that a permanent amusement ride must be scrutinized by “a qualified inspector” at least every 12 months.
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Documents released Tuesday by the state department showed that in June 2012, a records audit found that the park was not maintaining records of testing for current and previous years.
