On the 7th of August 2016, 10-year-old Caleb Schwab was enjoying a day out at
the Schlitterbahn vacation village theme park in Kansas. While riding the
50-meter Verruckt waterslide - one of the park's biggest attractions - his raft
became airborne and collided with safety netting, killing him instantly. Tt was
assumed at first to be a freak accident, but a lengthy investigation in the
aftermath of his death would reveal the truth: the slide had always been unsafe
and should never have been allowed to operate in the first place. Verruckt was
the brainchild of Jeff Henry, Schlitterbahn's co-owner, who announced his
intention to build the world's fastest waterslide during an interview at a
trade show. Having made this pledge on the spur of the moment he then attempted to
pitch the ride to several manufacturers, but was unable to find anyone willing to
take on its construction. Undaunted, Jeff Henry decided that he
would oversee the design and construction of the ride himself. Verruckt
was comprised of two drops: an initial seventeen-storey plunge was
followed by a short uphill section which carried riders to the top of a second
long drop. Riders would have to climb more than 200 steps to the top of the
tower before sliding down on board specially built three-person rafts.
During testing sandbags were mounted onto these rafts and sent down the slide.
On several occasions it was noted that they became airborne at the end of the
uphill section, sometimes smashing into safety netting that had been added there.
To mitigate this danger the entire bottom half of the ride was demolished
and rebuilt at a shallower angle and a weight limit was set for groups of
riders to ensure that they did not gather too much momentum during the
first drop. Jeff Henry was not a professional ride
designer or engineer. Anxious to get the slide open for the park's 2014 season he
pushed the designers he did hire to work around the clock,
rushing calculations and tests that should have taken months. The media were
unaware of this and unaware of the failed safety tests. Thanks to an earlier
decision to allow a Schlitterbahn to self-inspect its own rides (rather than
enforcing state inspection) the state of Missouri also never realized the ride
was unsafe. Indeed when Verruckt opened it attracted
national media coverage and was named the world's best new water park ride at
the 2014 Golden Ticket Awards. Over the course of the next year at least 13
riders suffered injuries on Verruckt, usually as a result of their rafts
becoming airborne and smashing into the safety netting that covered the slide.
Supervisors and officials were quick to hush up the injuries, wanting to protect
the investment of the park. They paid off the injured and ignored mounting safety
concerns amongst the ride's staff and lifeguards. The accident which killed
Caleb Schwab was inevitable. It was avoidable. It was tragic. When the raft on
which he was riding became airborne he struck his head on one of the metal
supports that held the safety netting in place over the slide, killing him
instantly and throwing him from the raft. The two women riding with him also
sustained serious injuries but survived. Caleb Schwab's remains followed the raft
down the final portion of the ride, leaving behind them a trail of blood. In
the aftermath of the accident the waterslide was closed permanently and
the decision to allow Schlitterbahn to self-inspect its own rides was swiftly
revoked. Engineers inspected the ride before it was demolished and noted that
it was non-compliant in multiple ways with basic safety regulations. Jeff Henry
and two other co-owners and designers were arrested and charged with
involuntary manslaughter, but the charges were eventually dismissed after
inadmissible evidence was used in court. Schlitterbahn Kansas continues to
operate to this day, although Verruckt has since been torn down. There is no
memorial on site to ten-year-old Caleb Schwab