The Tragedy Of The World's Tallest Waterslide: The History of Schlitterbahn

Join us on Expedition Extinct as we look at the history of Schlitterbahn Water Parks and the Tragedy of The World's Tallest Waterslide. The place for families, made by families changed water parks forever.
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Credits -
Schlitterbahn
Jason Thompson - • Dragon Blaster Schlitt...
LillyPollard - • Testing Insano, The Wo...
John I - • IAAPA 2012 Sights and ...

[@ExpeditionThemePark]

What Expedition would you like to see next?

[@DemC92]

I think in honor of loch ness monster getting a full refurb at BGW that would be a cool expedition to see. Coming full circle from opening to refurb.

[@tyrannoyoshi]

I’d love to see an Expedition on Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot. I’d also like it if you’d do one on some Busch Gardens coaster, and it better have another animated backstory like the Iron Gwazi Expedition or else I’m not watching!

[@arthur.jaanus]

i'd like to see dreamworld Australia wipeout the world's first Vekoma Waikiki wave super flip

[@arthur.jaanus]

and expedition alton towers boneshaker an mondial supernova

[@themeparksandtransport]

Expedition Oakwood!

[@kingcars]

The moment I saw the design of that slide, I told my wife, “This is exactly what I used to build in Roller Coaster Tycoon when I wanted to yeet people out of the park.”

[@tymondcrawford6967]

i didnt know anyone else did this LOL

[@Snarl_Marx]

​@@tymondcrawford6967 I thought _everyone_ did that on Rollercoaster Tycoon lol

[@thankyou770]

😅😅😅

[@robertokandal]

Engineeers also fail. As an official mechanic the design is dangerous becuase ihsa no amrgin of error. So if paramenter of safety change a little bit something was going to happen. I would neve have donne it or allow it. Imagine someone push you insufale down hill with some force, thast the engought to accelerate the thing to for a forbidden speed, maybe it as what hapened the worker that was controlling uphill remebered to push anyone wiht more force.

[@jjay350]

The guys should have just played the game, you can instantly test results and redesign it. But yeah, designs like this never really worked in the game, I would always have to make enclosed tubes for it to keep rafts from flying off the slide. Obviously that wouldn't work IRL.

[@enigmadrath1780]

"They based the slide off of roller coasters." Guess they forgot the part where roller coasters are ATTACHED to the tracks. Not just carts speeding through bends and loops on nothing but hope and prayer.

[@moosesandmeese969]

Don't even need an engineering degree to figure that out. I knew that when I was 10

[@DdaengEli]

If this guy wasn't stopped I bet he would have tried to put a loop in one. Smh

[@donadrian2688]

0

[@esmeraldadawnfeather6907]

Adventure park, that you?

[@jimwhelan9152]

Yep, all,roller coaster have "upstop" wheels to keep them on the track. There is absolutely no way a hill like this can be safe. The physics say there is an extremely fine line between the raft not being able to get over the hill and flying off it. Just as an example I have had the opportunity for several years to judge "model" roller coasters at amusement park "science days". These "roller coasters" use a marble to go down the track and never have any hills. I sometimes ask the builders why they don't put any hills in. I know the answer. It's always, "we couldn't get the marble to stay on the track, it always flew off."

[@belcurve]

Surely the guy who has no training or qualifications in engineering or physics is the ideal candidate to design & build the highest waterslide ever made.

[@belcurve]

It's actually insane to me. "yeah build a HUGE hill and at the bottom put a little hill to go over" this is called a ramp dummy, and they are explicitly designed to get air time. even having no education you didn't have hotwheels or ride bikes or anything? just no braincells at all?

[@blakewhite3131]

​@@belcurve literally the most psychopathic waterslide

[@traceytrotter9934]

Men pushing the limits? Just think what he could have done for the world with those massive bucks. Nothing like Meth to make you waste your money on an obvious death ride.

[@Loralanthalas]

Surely the State and building inspectors should be held accountable..... oh wait. Never-ending. They kept killing people until they killed a congressmans son. This youtuber who didn't bother to mention the other deaths is fucked up.

[@harrietharlow9929]

No way that could go badly awry, eh? SMDH that someone with no training/qualification would be allowed to "design" something like Verruckt.

[@DrMD-1]

I work with Schlitterbahn in South Padre Island back in 2012 as a lifeguard. The company didn’t want to hire professional cleaners, so they LITERALLY made us scrub the river ground AND the sewers. At one time, a team of lifeguards were cleaning inside the machine that made the waves of the river. The machine somehow turned on, crushing one lifeguard inside the tank. I remember seeing the ambulances helicopter taking him away. He was declared dead the same week. This company did everything they did to save a dime, and threatened us our jobs if we didn’t scrub the tanks. I’m so glad Schlitterbahn got what they deserved

[@munkywrench00]

jfc

[@Justice4all_001]

Plenty more life guards out there! Best to start scrubbing!

[@Canev821]

I remember that didn’t they not want to report it to osha

[@jacklarue7049]

Boo-fuckin-hoo. "I couldn't sit on my ass all day, getting paid for doing nothing" is all I heard. Get your shine box!

[@jodyterblanche308]

Yoh!! 😮

[@MrAnthonyIII]

The terrible thing was that they were already fully aware that the raft would sometimes go airborne, and yet they covered this up. This wasn't even just a one-time accident, people were already getting injured repeatedly and they ignored it until someone finally died.

[@kavinh10]

if it wasn't the son of a politician, the incident would've been brushed aside or at least not a big deal would've been made of it.

[@skumsters2323]

Sad, but my thought exactly!@@kavinh10

[@avalencia18]

Probably the reason he was let on the ride as well. He did not meet age limit and most likely weight limit either

[@WarrenHolly]

Republicans hate regulations so corporations get away with murder but who cares. Right? They are working on our behalf 😏

[@kod5660]

And noone went to jail.. Outrageous.

[@exclusive605]

as an engineer, I dont think the biggest contributing factor was just his lack of formal education albeit lacking strong foundation is dangerous but there's plenty that is certainly learned throughout your career. I think it was likely his disregard for other professionals and his own arrogance to think he knows better than anyone that did him in. Money, power, and a hungry ego are the most dangerous thing in the universe.

[@thinking4myself676]

100%

[@alexalogan8461]

Very true. Most of the accidents and "incidents" I've seen happen have been because of disregard of regulations or guidelines. Also, what you point out is exactly why multidisciplinary teams are needed for projects, especially where health and safety are concerned.

[@tauntdragoon]

i agree his lack of formal training was not the issues it was his pride and the disregard for safety if after the first few injuries if they stopped and found a way to fix the issues to make it safer instead of just sweeping it under the rug if he would have head some of the formally train people and got their input on it on how to try to keep the original vision intact but make it safe but as you said arrogance and ego and his own pride got in the way there have been plenty of people with out formal trianing to go on and make amazing things but they also let those who knew more chime in on it

[@Kadotus]

As an engineer myself, I agree. I have a strong preference to have any critical work of mine verified by others and thoroughly tested. Why would I take it personally, if I failed to see an issue that someone else noticed? I would be grateful to them for noticing it before something bad happens. Being proud of one's accomplishments is a good, natural thing. Being blinded by pride is just beyond stupid.

[@ilRosewood]

I agree. If they would have taken the injury reports to heart and worked on the ride and taken their time they could have gotten to something safe without any formal training. In the end it was hubris that caused the death.

[@JohnDoe-yp3zv]

33:10 "I'm not going by the standards. This has never been attempted, so I'll be redefining those standards." Me having heard this same explanation regarding the Titan sub and hearing about its implosion due to "redefining standards":

[@MrEyesof9]

Hind site is always 20/20. To be fair however, they obviously had a decent engineering acumen.... this was after all only one of dozens of rides. One of their parks from the time is STILL in operation under their control.

[@TheRealColt45]

ROTFL I was about to post a sarcastic reply re: he was fresh off being fired from Ocean Gate but you beat me to it!

[@bimmjim]

Family" dogs kill 50 people per year in the US. Humans are insane.

[@middleagedgamers7750]

Scary when you think about the fact that proponents for pushing trans ideology are, in their own words "building the plane as we fly it." They are redefining the standards in opposition to truth. Instead of using real science and evidence they are choosing to ignore it for feelings and personal bias to push proven damaging and harmful things on our children.

[@DL-fl5ul]

Punishment should never be money in this case. Always just jail time. It's pretty sick to me that a family wants money because their kid died. In this case and others. That should be last thing on your mind. The wayyy more appropriate response is jail time to offender. There should be no money at all changing hands bc a death. Almost makes me think worse of the parents of the kid. Oh our boy is dead, but now we can afford a $15 million mansion that I will be reminded everyday that I can afford bc my son's accidental death. All parties screwed up. Jeff the owner for making. The lady riding on back for being wayy to big probably ignoring restrictions. The lifeguard for allowing the small undersized kid and being up front and obese lady on. The parents for wanting money after the death, and the judge/jury not sentencing Jeff to prison. Literally every single party did the exact opposite thing that they should do. Everyone should feel horrible about themselves here. For the boy to be decapitated while the next closest dangerous thing was a slipped disk or hurt neck.. that tells me that there was some massive obese woman on the back. You simply don't have millions of riders that got minor injuries and then 1 out of million gets decapitated unless the phsyics were set up exactly that way. Some fat f*ck woman who stuffs her face with cheetos probably ignored the weight limit set for the ride and is partly responsible for the boys death

[@danielibarra493]

My best friend and I went on that ride the first summer that it was open. I remember being SO nervous in line, looking up (and up...and up) at the ramp. It only got worse as we went up (and up...and up...and up) the stairs and got closer to the front of the line. We were so high up that the wind was blowing hard and cool despite it being a moderately calm and warm day. I was so nervous that I asked the lifeguard at the top if he had been on the ride before, just so I could get some last-second assurance that I was gonna be ok. I thought I was just being a coward and didn't realize that I was genuinely risking my life by strapping myself into that raft. When I heard about Caleb it broke my heart to think that he might've been scared in line too, only for his fears to become reality. He waited in line for his death, and didn't get to walk away from the ride and go home like I did. Poor Caleb lost his life because he trusted that the adults in charge of his safety knew what they were doing. I was initially saddened to hear about the park closing, but after learning how ownership ignored the need for essential repairs and covered up previous injuries, i realized that this tragedy was inevitable, and that some people really shouldn't be in charge of the safety of others.

[@EriktionEBW]

Was it fun?

[@iheartericcartman]

@@EriktionEBWDawg…

[@woozyguy9]

I rode it too.. It was fun, nothing groundbreaking though, like a good roller coaster drop, but with the novelty of it being a water slide. Getting strapped into the raft though with nothing, but velcro straps did feel.... unusual. Luckily, no incidents occurred. One thing this video neglected to mention is that the kid who died was actually decapitated. When they went airborne Caleb's neck hit the rod holding the net and it sliced into his neck, and he was instantly decapitated. His head and body flew out of the raft and landed on the chute. Can't imagine being one of the other riders on with him, or one of the young workers there witnessing that, let alone being poor Caleb..

[@kohinarec6580]

At least it was quick, not prolonged suffering with quadriplegia and brain damage. This kind of disregard for safety makes me sick. The poor kid was basically murdered by a trial and errorist.

[@evanswackyvideos6027]

​@@woozyguy9Where did you get the details of the incident from?

[@Kurt1969]

My brother and I rode that three days before the accident. It's not a ride. It was extremely rough all the way down. Like being tossed of a 40 story building in a raft with a weight on it. It wasn't fun. It wasn't even thrilling to be honest. Just felt dangerous.

[@thicccarteronxbox9930]

I was looking for the comment of someone who rode it, damn that’s crazy, I can’t imagine what it was like to hear that just a few days later someone died

[@j-coasters]

The roughness is one of the things that stood out the most to me as well. I hadn't been on a waterslide that rode that rough. It felt like an old wooden coaster the way it shuffled and bumped along the flume.

[@Kurt1969]

@@thicccarteronxbox9930 What's odd is when I came off the slide, I thought to myself how dangerous it felt? It was rough.

[@Kurt1969]

@@j-coasters Did you see the red 'stain' on the slide before they tore it down? You could see it from the highway. I can't imagine what else that would be. I don't think I would call it a water slide. At all. It's more of an adventure seeking thrill? Certainly not a ride. Amazing it was around that long.

[@Nuttty]

@@thicccarteronxbox9930 I rode it too and it was not worth the wait and it wasn't that exciting. I remember it feeling unfinished back then and even weighing 220 pounds it felt like it would take off. I don't remember the timeline of when I went it was on a road trip in 2014 or 2015

[@javiermoretti1825]

My best friend is a design engineer, and he pointed out that the ride should have been called Klage instead ("lawsuit" in German). This was a disaster waiting to happen.

[@97I30T]

I’ve lived in the Kansas City area my whole life, and you’re right. That slide had a bad reputation in Kansas City way before that kid lost his life on it. Hell, Schlitterbahn Kansas City never had a great reputation as a whole. It was always a disappointing water park.

[@mendmywings7238]

It's literally do obvious to anyone who has eyes. I mean there's not having an engineering degree and then there's this level of stupidity Or arrogance Or both.

[@MikeBarbarossa]

I'm still scratching my head about the overhead netting It was meant to stop a flying sled from going over the edge. But with the rider's heads being the highest point, how could they not see a rider's head being grated like a giant cheese grater if that happened? They simply replaced one danger with another

[@skeetrix5577]

I bet this guy, and Stockton rush the creater of that titan sub that imploded last summer, would have been great pals since they both gave zero fucks for best industry practices and killed innocent people in the process. look people, if something looks unsafe it honestly probably is and you should avoid no matter any reinsurance told by its operators and just because something like this may have never hurt anyone, doesn't mean it isn't capable of doing so and you being the first victim. the problem is people generally believe that "it won't happen to me" until your laying on the ground with your head 2 feet away from the rest of your body! this is why I have a fear of attractions like this, and why I avoid them because my level of anxiety about these type of things would override any fun I might have on it.

[@skeetrix5577]

​@@MikeBarbarossaafter everything I've seen about this tragedy in the years since, I still can't come up with a good reason why it was built that way. the only thing I know for sure is that it's obvious the chicken wire was a complete afterthought of the whole project after the rafts filled with sand bags kept flying off and flipping over, which would seriously injure or kill anyone unlucky enough to be riding in that damn thing. you could have brought a cucumber on that damn thing, held it up to the wire on the way down and it would have cut it into slices with no effort once soever. did they seriously not give any thought as to what might happen to a person when one gets their raft thrown adrift and comes in contact with that wire at those speeds and with that much force? it almost seems like the answer is that they didn't, because anyone objectively looking at that setup would probably come to the conclusion that was a tragedy waiting to happen. if it wouldn't have been for the 10 year old, by now it would have definitely been someone else. and while I don't blame the victim or his family or anyone else that chose to get on that death trap, people should have used their heads and given it a second thought as to get on that thing or not. just because it's open and people aren't getting hurt dont mean it won't happen, I can honestly say that once I would have seen the chicken wire there wasn't going to be a snowballs chance in hell I'd actually get on some shit like that. there are several roller coasters at my local six flags I've never rode because I don't trust them. yeah I may be a snowflake but whatever I value my life and don't want to lose it by becoming a victim of shoddy maintenance or engineering

[@5MadMovieMakers]

I remember this all happening and thinking "well, some rider must have done something dumb" and not realizing till later how much the builders disregarded accepted safety standards. Really sad story

[@loosilu]

The father of a victim was a politician who consistently voted against regulations.

[@teijaflink2226]

Did the father chance his voting after this? Politicians like this frustrated me so much, who constantly vote against things that would make it safety and better for everyone.

[@andreajohnson1212]

​@teijaflink2226 yes, he spearheaded the new law.

[@extec101]

@@andreajohnson1212 shocking he tured straight round and started voting for safety. 🤔

[@Gromitdog1]

@loosilu He also cashed in on $20M rather than the $300K liability damages limit law that he voted for in his home state.

[@larryroyovitz7829]

Being a dad of 3 kids, I can't imagine the pain felt by that poor boy's family.

[@AmarFox6]

I bet 20 mil made it worth 😅

[@MadDoodles]

@@AmarFox6Not even close you utter bell end.

[@steampunk-llama]

@@AmarFox6No amount of money can change the fact their kid died needlessly, what is wrong with you

[@fireironthesecond2909]

Want to lend the family one of them?

[@Tryhlos]

​@@AmarFox6 what is wrong with you?

[@ThomasCarrieri]

This sounds a lot like the OceanGate thing where the CEO ignored safety because he thought he was redifining the industry. Both ended in tragedy.

[@choo_choo_]

Personally, I see the sub implosion as a win. Nothing better than less 1-percenters. The closer to zero it gets, the better.

[@rich_edwards79]

Yep. Don't fuck around with physics, is the moral of the story 👍

[@FreeValen]

I’ve had to explain to a lot of coworkers that the Titan explosion was not an one off. Rich people with big egos do dangerous stuff that hurts people all the time because they didn’t want to deal with the guidelines that ✨exist for a reason✨.

[@pikariocraftf2802]

​@@FreeValenI heard a phrase once, "safety guidelines are written in blood" and thats.. pretty fitting.

[@loosilu]

Yep. And both pushed ahead without adequate testing.

[@blabla903]

I'm a structural engineer. I know how much we get paid for jobs like this. There is 0 chance that paying an engineer for a safer design is more money than building the slide over and over and over again.

[@DevilOnlyKnitsLace]

This situation is a perfect example of hubris. You know Jeff had the $$ to pay engineers to design & build a safe, quality slide. What a shame Jeff wanted all the "glory." This is why states' license engineers.

[@rjvw3078]

If I think back to my grade 10 physics work I can figure out that you cant just put this together and hope for the best. Newtons laws , speed, launce angle etc. Absolutely insanely stupid what happened here. Oh and a net for safety. Nylon strings becoming blades that would cut you to bits at high speed. Ok the pieces wont go missing. Wow Stupid beyond comprehension. This is so absurd. And why do some others study to become engineers? While uneducated lunatics are left on their own to engineer an engineering structure but leaving out the engineering part and leave it to back yard mechanics. And then actually put real people and kids on the ride? Do not try and understand it. It in a dumb league of its own. Anyone with half a brain cell will never understand it. You need no brains then you would maybe find it ok because you have no idea how to think.

[@cheerdiver]

The Dunning/Kruger effect at its finest. The poorly educated think they're the smartest people in the world.

[@TheGlovener1985]

Yeah this guy seemed to be extremely arrogant and stubborn. Didn't like to be told what to do. In other words a p.o.s

[@nexaentertainment2764]

Yes but think of the short term gains/savings. -them probably

[@Pengochan]

33:07 Not following industry standards and "redefining standards" reminded me of the Oceangate debacle.

[@marywemigwase3354]

Agreed

[@Mogamishu]

I can assure you the Oceangate Titan was safe and effective.

[@Pengochan]

@@Mogamishuthat seems to redefine "safe", as for effective: sure, only to what end?

[@cassiopeia_mori]

@@Pengochaneffective in getting down there, not as effective in *staying* down there lol

[@souswodaem1]

​@@cassiopeia_moriI mean, technically it was pretty effective at staying down there once...

[@segue2ant395]

Jeff: "No model for this exists" RollerCoaster Tycoon 2: "Am I a f****n' joke to you?!"

[@angelaroseneder7980]

That's SO true, man! Those heights are insane

[@MarsJenkar]

Yep, and if you'd tried to build this as a dinghy slide in that game, you'd definitely be risking a crash at some point.

[@ezzy0308]

I miss that game

[@Zorothegallade-gg7zg]

THE RIDE NEVER ENDS

[@thecraftycyborg9024]

@@ezzy0308- there’s an iPad version of the original game!! I love it! I was raised on the original in pc. I remember my freshman year of college, I spent Christmas break at my desk playing that game for hours every day as I hadn’t had time for games all semester.

[@larrywalsh9939]

*Edit* - I wanted to post this on here because the video doesn't mention it. Caleb Schwab died on that waterslide, yes, but he didn't.... merely die. He was *decapitated*. His head was RIPPED OFF HIS BODY by that netting. The two women he was riding with were also injured, including skull fractures and a broken jaw - and from what I've heard from within the waterpark industry, the woman who was riding behind Caleb was injured by his detached head hitting her in the face. I'm not saying this to shock you, so much as I want you to understand just how shocking and horrific this incident was, far more than you think it is. I want you to hear this and know just how extremely criminally negligent the Henry family was in designing and building this thing. I am furious at these murderers and I want you to be furious at them too. When the Verrukt tragedy happened, I worked at in the engineering department of Whitewater West, one of the biggest waterslide manufacturers in the world. We had an ongoing relationship with the Schlitterbahn people, as we had built a number of their slides and had been consultants on a number of others. I recall the day this event happened, I came into the office, found the news of the dead child, and had a series of horrified reactions switching between "oh, that poor child" and "for the love of god, PLEASE tell me that wasn't us". Turns out that not only had we not built the slide, nor had we officially consulted on it, but apparently several of our engineers had told them that slide was a bad idea. The essential problem of that slide was kinetic energy. Water velocity is a variable, as it can be affected by a lot of different things including wind, ambient temperature, water temperature, slide temperature, variables in the contaminants and solutions in the water, etc. Friction is a variable, due to rider weight being a variable, so because friction and thus water velocity can never be an accurately known thing, you'll never be able to accurately predict the remaining kinetic energy of the raft as it crests them hump of the slide. This means you'll either get "close enough" and the vehicle follows the desired trajectory, "not enough", so the vehicle slides back down to the middle of the slide, or "too much", and the vehicle gets airborne when it goes over the hump. 'Close enough' is not a reliable category, it's like flipping a coin and needing it to land on its edge. Possible, but impossible to control or predict. 'Too little' is the next best thing, the ride did not go as desired but nothing tragic happened. 'Too much' is an absolute disaster, AND IF YOU'RE BUILDING A RIDE THAT HAS "ABSOLUTE DISASTER" AS ONE OF THE MAIN POSSIBLE OUTCOMES, YOU DON'T BUILD THE GOD DAMNED SLIDE, YOU F*CKING MORONS. I am, and will always remain furious at the fools who built this travesty. I'm even more furious with the prosecutors who fumbled the murder case, because it was, indeed, murder - these people KNOWINGLY put the public in danger of death due to their negligence and incompetence, but worst of all is they were TOLD the ride was fundamentally unsafe and they opened it anyway - that's not manslaughter, that's murder.

[@rainscratch]

No one would like to hear the grisly nature of the boy's death. But you are correct, it hammers home just how negligent the designer/s and builders of this thing were. The variables you mention are something that are impossible to factor in for absolute safety. This horrific death trap should not have even made it past a rudimentary sketch.

[@missybarbour6885]

It was an "internal decapitation" which means his head was not detached from his body, but his spine was severed when his neck snapped...

[@Jwayspillz]

wow this is a lot more tragic than they were reporting back then.

[@larrywalsh9939]

This was the first I'd heard of the "internal decapitation", so I suppose that makes it less..... no, no it doesn't, it doesn't make it any less horrifying. But what horrifies me most is anyone who knows about design would look at this concept and shudder because it could never, never be safe, and these assholes went and built it anyway, and that makes me angry.

[@scottyjbd]

@@rainscratchmaybe try speaking for just yourself and not others, it’s important to know exactly what happened so some idiot doesn’t come on here and scream I CAN MAKE THIS WORK and cause this to happen again. The point of knowing what happened is to prevent it from ever happening again, the second we start ignoring these tragedies or pretend to know all the facts is the moment it may happen again.

[@bethanydimuzio8861]

I rode that slide *6 days* before Caleb was killed on it. I had gone to the waterpark with my twin brother's baseball team,. My dad was the coach, and a lot of the boys on the team had sisters who i really liked to hang out with, and they also got to go, so it was a really cool day. The slide was all we talked about on the car ride to the park. We sprinted to it the second we got in the park to get our names put in for a reservation. I remember spending all day excited to ride it. Then finally, it was our designated reservation time! The boys were all teasing us girls about how "dangerous" the slide was and how we could "totally fly right off!" Of course they were playing off of the news stories we had read about the crash test dummies coming out of the rafts. We all thought the news stories were greatly exaggerated for thrill and advertisement, and that there would be no way the waterpark engineers would *actually* open a ride if it was still dangerous. None of us got hurt that day, but less than a week later that boy died on it. The news constantly put up the photo of Caleb in his baseball uniform. I remember feeling so ice cold looking at that. I had just gone on the ride with a good number of boys that looked exactly like that, my brother included. Boys who would have almost an identical baseball uniform photo for the news to put up. Horrific. I hope Caleb's family is doing as alright as they can now.

[@rainscratch]

Your story really paints the reality and random nature of such disasters. This thing should never have been allowed to be built.

[@FatherTime89]

How did your friends and family react to it?

[@1ManNamedDan]

@@rainscratch It wasn't a random act of nature, it was the calculated greed of the park owners and the insistence of a state Senator, the boys father, that regulations such as safety were bad for business. Greed is what took that boy and I hope his father never forgets he was complicit.

[@isabellind1292]

@@1ManNamedDan Do you always misquote what people say so you can use it against them. They didn't say it was a "random act of nature." They said it was the "random nature of such disasters" and followed it up w/what you've just described, only in a nutshell! You're barking up the wrong tree!

[@CT-vm4gf]

@@1ManNamedDanThe random nature of the fact it could’ve been her or any of the boys she was with.

[@MysteryMii]

I remember The Atlantic did a short documentary about this slide that used many clips from the slide and news of the tragedy to tell the history of the slide, and there this was one clip from the opening of the slide where a news reporter was interviewing this boy where they asked if he was going to go on the slide. The boy said no, and when he was asked why, he said the slide looked very scary. Little did they know that boy ended up being the smartest person there that day.

[@DrawciaGleam02]

I think I watched that clip!!!!

[@humanbeing2420]

The Atlantic piece is far more expertly done than this rather amateurish video. It also spells out how the park owners chose Kansas because it has the most lax government regulation of amusement parks (thanks to the Trump party). This slide could never have been built in a blue state.

[@ShiningTitan]

​@@humanbeing2420that's not even remotely true. action park was in New Jersey of all places

[@DL-fl5ul]

Punishment should never be money in this case. Always just jail time. It's pretty sick to me that a family wants money because their kid died. In this case and others. That should be last thing on your mind. The wayyy more appropriate response is jail time to offender. There should be no money at all changing hands bc a death. Almost makes me think worse of the parents of the kid. Oh our boy is dead, but now we can afford a $15 million mansion that I will be reminded everyday that I can afford bc my son's accidental death. All parties screwed up. Jeff the owner for making. The lady riding on back for being wayy to big probably ignoring restrictions. The lifeguard for allowing the small undersized kid and being up front and obese lady on. The parents for wanting money after the death, and the judge/jury not sentencing Jeff to prison. Literally every single party did the exact opposite thing that they should do. Everyone should feel horrible about themselves here.

[@KamiNoBaka1]

See, every time I hear about this Schlitterbahn, I think about the original Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels, Texas. Which is still open, and still super popular in the summer. Here in Texas, Schlitterbahn still has a great reputation and most people never even knew there was a Schlitterbahn park outside of the state.

[@TheGoIsWin21]

Okay man thank you for this, I was at the start of the video starting to panic thinking one of the bright spots of my childhood killed somebody 😂

[@alexlents4689]

@@TheGoIsWin21Sadly, it kinda did. All the parks were owned by the same people, the same people who were grossly negligent in design and testing to the point that a 10-year-old was killed. All the parks and the dangerous culture that permeated throughout were basically one and the same. No worries, though, Cedar Fair is a good company known for focusing on quality over quantity in their investments and operational aspects, as well as a solid safety record. I highly doubt the Texas parks will suffer under them.

[@JuanGarcia-fd4gu]

@@alexlents4689 no the New Braunfels one was already good before all this

[@sugarpuddin]

Originally it was to be built in San Marcos. But the San Marcos council refused to allow it. San Marcos was and is run by corrupt officials that didn't want to grant the Schlitterbahn family opportunity

[@LeviathanTechWiz]

Had a guy from texas who heard about this. Got to tell him i use to work the ride when i was on a shift. It was crazy bad, and he never knew about it being in kansas.

[@LiveByTheNumbers]

This guy builds waterslides like how I build stuff in Minecraft, just keep making and re-making it until it’s good enough.

[@CrimsonID4]

*_"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."_* - Richard Feynman

[@danieltossounian1962]

Excellent …he was referring to the challenger disaster

[@mistyize]

If you've ever seen this slide in real life, the pictures don't do it justice. It's incredibly high, and incredibly steep. It just looks wrong. It looks like exactly what happened, would happen. I prayed it would never open, and I swore none of my family would ever touch it.

[@97I30T]

Yup. I’ve lived in the KC area my whole life and something about that slide just never seemed right to me. It was massive and it looked kind of eerie lit up at night. To be honest, Schlitterbahn Kansas City never had a great reputation to begin with.

[@mistyize]

@@97I30T facts. Lol I remember seeing it before they put the cage on it, and I could just imagine kids launching off of it right at the top of the hump. You know the place. Lol then when they added the cage I knew the physics had to be off, and that they knew it. It was just... so weird.

[@kathrynjames6151]

I watched that episode they filmed for the slide with my dad when it was first released. My dad is an engineer, and when he saw the design he mentioned that it was very dangerous. The idea of the slide all hinged on the weight of the riders, which is not safe in my fathers eyes, or my own. I remember him saying that someone could get killed if the float ever went airborne during the finished ride. It wasn't long before we heard about the kid who was killed on the slide, and I realized that my dad was right. The whole story behind this slide has made me very weary of any water slides at the parks I have been to.

[@majorpwner241]

Most of them are safe, but there's always ways the rider themselves can potentially mess things up and get hurt. I remember trying to see how fast I could go down a waterslide as a kid by arching my feet and back a certain way, and I was starting to get pretty high up on the walls of the slide. At the end of the day it's on you to know your own limits, and be safe, or not ride something that gives you a bad feeling. Your dad sounds like a smart guy. Don't always wait for proof that he's right to listen to him, haha.

[@danyoutube7491]

@@majorpwner241 You don't get a trial run in a computer simulation to see what actions will get you injured on a ride, so the ride has to be constructed with the possibility that a rider might accidentally or deliberately position themselves in an unconventional way. The whole nature of this sort of design is not suited to a water park ride, the idea was taken from rollercoasters which was foolish.

[@user-zq9bs5yf8k]

I have never, and will never, go on a water slide because of stories like these. My 8th-grade class went to a water park for our pre-grad trip, and I only went in the lazy river. I haven’t been to a water park since.

[@stephenkennedy8305]

Wary is the word I believe your looking for.

[@loosilu]

@@majorpwner241 Kids do not know their own limits, and building a slide that relies on the riders' judgement to save their own lives is negligence.

[@trenchfry7492]

I lived in KCK at the time Verrückt opened. I remember anticipating the slide's opening, and every time we drove past the park, I was disappointed to see it still in construction. I was really small and thin, but I wanted to ride it so badly. I remember trying to gain weight just to meet the requirements to ride. I also went to Schlitterbahn every year with my dad's family and my old church, which have both since been cut off from my life. The memories there are bittersweet. I watched my older cousin ride the slide and was so jealous because I was still too small to go myself. My family told me that I'd be able to ride it one day when I'm older. Then the incident happened. The the court case followed and I followed it closely only to find that the slide wasn't properly made. Since I was around Caleb's age, I thought a lot about what could've happened if it were me. I had nightmares, I would pray for Caleb's family as if I knew them personally, and had a fear of waterslides after that. I'm not scared of waterslides anymore, but this video reminded me of that time. Everyone thought it was cute that I felt so much for a random kid because of a waterslide I was obsessed with, but it's anything but cute. Someone got decapitated. It's infuriating that they could let something like this happen.

[@jstravelers4094]

As a child, I would have had all the trust in the world that the mature adults who owned and designed the slide would have put safety of the riders above all else. As an adult, I have seen what the pursuit of money can influence all matter of horrible disgusting decisions. I don't trust anyone anymore. Not until I verify their intentions.

[@CuteCuteJames]

"Everyone thought it was cute that I felt so much for a random kid" do they not have sympathy on your home planet? No wonder you've cut them out of your life.

[@lainiehutchings9805]

I was around his age also. When the ride was finally open my dad would always say when driving pass the park that we will go on it eventually and I would say no way everytime

[@jonasghafur4940]

it truly is anything but cute. to this day, i am certain that moments like this are the reason why we age, it tears out a bit of innocence piece meal. All of a sudden, you don’t feel invincible anymore. I watched a girl of my age, who waited next to me on a bike to cross the street die. She went over with the light still red and got t-boned by a car, impinged between the car and the guard rail. I still haven’t really got over that to be honest with myself.

[@FBIAgent-lq8vd]

im in kck too. people stil regularly visit his grave, myself included.

[@sarahjackson1862]

I love your style. A lot of channels focus on the gore and horror of what happened to this poor young boy, wheras you focus more on the story of the slide and WHY this happened, going in detail with the measures taken by the park to hide the issues with the slide. Really nice work, love your channel!

[@zizarama]

Me too. It wasn't immediate gore and horror, but the whole story of how the park came to be, expanded, etc. I liked and watched the whole show.

[@ViaThroughTheWindow]

I think I have to disagree. I'm still confused about how the child died. It would have been nice if the video mentioned the cause of death and possible factors (was the weight of the raft too low? was it the raft that kept malfunctioning? what about other injuries?)

[@sarahjackson1862]

@@ViaThroughTheWindow due to being too light to ride, the raft took to the air after going up the hill after the first drop. There's netting above the hill to keep people from flying off. The boy hit his head on one of the metal bars supporting the net and was decapitated, if I remember correctly. Nothing malfunctioned, the design was just bad and the raft was too light to ride.

[@childofcascadia]

@ViaThroughTheWindow Medical professional here. He died from a broken neck from impact with slide structure. He was *not* decapitated. One of the medical terms for a broken neck where the break is a complete break between the skull and the top of the spine is "Internal Decapitation". This does *not* mean actual decapitation where the head is physically detached from the neck. It means "badly broken neck on or around the c1 vertebra". Its actually not immediately fatal in 30% of cases. And it can be survivable. But. The media saw "decapitation" and ran with it, cooking up gruesome stories about it. So I havent seen the actual records but my guess is to cause internal decap, his head impacted the slide railing or structure while his body kept moving, which broke his neck. Children are very prone to this kind of injury in high speed accidents, due to their proportionally larger head and smaller body than an adult.

[@samuraisharkie]

@@childofcascadiaI’m very curious on how that sort of injury is survivable. If the spinal cord is severed, isn’t that it for the body? I guess I could see survival with total paralysis or a vegetative state, but when there’s such a drastic break it shocks me that it has even a 70% survival rate. I assume gruesome stories accompanying this particular instance were a combo of the term “internal decapitation” and the fact that there were pictures of blood at the bottom of the slide with “two tarps”. The other two women sustained significant injuries as well though, and I’m sure there was some level of laceration or blood release from the severity of the boy’s injuries. The two tarps could be anything, from pieces of the raft, bone fragments from the one lady’s jaw, to an actual body. I for one am thankful enough that the scene wasn’t nearly as grisly as media makes it out to have been.

[@edwardleemiller-eo8jp]

They were so obsessed with having the worlds tallest slide that they ignored all the laws of physics.

[@ExpeditionThemePark]

Yup!

[@zonilo1]

And their obsession got someone killed and the "Justice System" was a joke for for patting him back on the shoulder.

[@ruthanneluvsvacuuming6653]

And why didn’t it have to be inspected and proven safe before it could open

[@ScofieldStudios]

They were so obsessed with whether they could. They didn't stop to think whether they should.

[@loosilu]

@@ruthanneluvsvacuuming6653 It wasn't required by law

[@kingly.]

My family and I went to that Schlitterbahn less than a month before the accident. My little brother rode Veruckt at least two or three times - at that time he was nearly exactly the same size and age as Caleb. I remember distinctly that my brother was old enough that he could go off on his own in the park so I didn’t have to ride Verruckt with him. I’m a coaster fan and would have ridden it normally, but something about the ride made me nervous and I didn’t want to get on (honestly I think the stairs freaked me out). If I had ridden with him and the friend he brought, it would have been VERY similar to the setup that caused the accident. I think my brother still has the Verruckt shirt he bought after he rode it all day that day, but he’s like 6’2 now so it’s just a keepsake. I realize this is such a “I was there” story but I can’t help but think about it any time I watch one of these videos - it really could have been my brother if things had been a little different and he’d gotten the wrong boat.

[@WaltnPipes]

Me and my family also went right before the accident and I remember being so upset I couldn’t go on it with my family because I wasn’t tall enough

[@Eric_Seay]

Jeff Henry talking about ignoring safety models because he was making something that models didn't exist for sounds exactly like what Stockton Rush said about his Titan submersible. We know how that went.

[@rainscratch]

Exactly - I don't follow any rules because we are making new rules kind of thing.

[@warrax111]

I REMEMBERED FOR IT, EXACTLY IN THAT MOMENT. Dude, that's awesome, I could not imagine, someone other will have same thinking processes.

[@stevetournay6103]

Yes. But at least Titan only mashed flat a bunch of ultrarich hubris enthusiasts...including the "Jeff Henry" of that story himself...

[@DL-fl5ul]

Punishment should never be money in this case. Always just jail time. It's pretty sick to me that a family wants money because their kid died. In this case and others. That should be last thing on your mind. The wayyy more appropriate response is jail time to offender. There should be no money at all changing hands bc a death. Almost makes me think worse of the parents of the kid. Oh our boy is dead, but now we can afford a $15 million mansion that I will be reminded everyday that I can afford bc my son's accidental death. All parties screwed up. Jeff the owner for making. The lady riding on back for being wayy to big probably ignoring restrictions. The lifeguard for allowing the small undersized kid and being up front and obese lady on. The parents for wanting money after the death, and the judge/jury not sentencing Jeff to prison. Literally every single party did the exact opposite thing that they should do. Everyone should feel horrible about themselves here. For the boy to be decapitated while the next closest dangerous thing was a slipped disk or hurt neck.. that tells me that there was some massive obese woman on the back. You simply don't have millions of riders that got minor injuries and then 1 out of million gets decapitated unless the phsyics were set up exactly that way. Some fat f*ck woman who stuffs her face with cheetos probably ignored the weight limit set for the ride and is partly responsible for the boys death

[@Spamhard]

@@DL-fl5ul Says someone who's never paid for a funeral. Hope none of your family die horrifically and your left in debt trying to pay solicitor, legal fees and funeral fees.

[@Faith_Soprano]

The first time I ever watched something about this accident, I remember there were a lot of comments where people blamed the other riders. They said the boy died because the woman riding behind him lied about her weight. I don't know how stupid one has to be to believe that the safety of a ride would depends on the words of riders about their weight, but even that aside, the fact that the safety of the ride was at all dependent on the riders' weight to the point where the weight being off could actually mean a possibly fatal accident would occur just says to me that the ride never should have existed in the first place.

[@yushkovyaroslav]

There are plenty of extreme attractions out there that if you were to come in underweight or under height you would be under a large risk of dying. I don't understand how people can dismiss the fact that millions of people who rode this slide did not die XD. It's like saying if a 1 in a million people on airplane dies, then all air travel is unsafe. It became unsafe when proper maintenance was not done and the lack of informed rules in riders age, height and weight were not met. The main criminal negligence here was improper communication of risks and allowing a 10-year-old to ride this slide. Not teaching the crew on how to properly position the people riding the slide. And proper maintenance done on the slide. And the biggest design flaw anyway was probably the net itself. Using metal bars, it was unsafe method of stopping rafts if they were to go airborne. Also not to mention there are incidence in rollercoaster that were perfectly designed with "engineers and physicists" rating at about 4.5 deaths per year across the US due to the same issues. The difference here I suppose, was communication.

[@PersephoneDaSilva]

​@yushkovyaroslav Not to mention that the original age requirement by professionals was 16, then the team working on it lowered it to 14, before removing it all together.

[@billbarney4937]

ill bet politicians were paid off to let safety standards become non-existant

[@zombiechicken7114]

But if the riders were weighed it would not matter if she did lie??

[@bizichyld]

My wife and kids and I were on a brand new “alpine coaster” in Leavenworth WA recently. It functions similar to a traditional roller coaster, but the rider has control over the brakes. I got mine to the bottom and stopped, and my daughter came in on the next coaster behind me. To my horror, I saw my wife come flying in to the unloading area full speed where she crashed into the car containing my daughter. She claimed her hair was in face from the ride down, and combined with the darkness of night, she was unaware she was at the end of the ride. Either there is no automatic braking function, or it malfunctioned and allowed this collision to happen. There was some soreness, but otherwise everybody was ok and walked away. If somebody were passing between the cars, a serious injury could have resulted. Watching this documentary makes me wonder if this attraction is just another accident waiting to happen. Most of the people injured on the slide probably never reported them to the park, or likely shrugged them off. I’m realizing now we may have made a mistake not bringing this to the attention of the owners of this ride.

[@Harmonikdiskorde]

You know, I definitely had second thoughts about that coaster! If you can brake yourself, how do you ensure every car is in its own locking zone (sorry I forget the actual term)?! Glad your family was ok ❤

[@lizzyblitz07]

It’s never too late to call and make a report. To the park, to any regulatory agency for that state, and even to the news when it’s something severe like Schlitterbahn.

[@beanman3113]

"Rafts were launching into the air" Me: Oh no... "Nets were added to the slide" Me: *Oh no...*

[@PersephoneDaSilva]

You should add: "Nets were added too low to the slide." That's even worse and factual.

[@MikeBarbarossa]

Nets were added with no protective arch added to the sled, which means the rider's HEADS would be the thing that hits the net. Genius

[@marianarath4024]

I can imagine how that stupid guy probably thought it was a genius idea, Gosh how can shit like that be allowed to be open to the public??

[@AdmCornFlake]

I just don't know how they thought these metal webs were a good solution to the airborne problem. It's so WTF, especially because they told riders not to stick their arms out due to delimbing risks. They knew people could be injured from barreling down at 70mph and hitting that scuffed and terrifying looking metal cage. I don't understand at all.

[@Annie-zr6xy]

The horrific and tragic irony is that Caleb's family was there that day because it was Kansas lawmakers day at the park, as his dad was a state representative. The reason the park was built in Kansas was because of the lax laws Kansas had regarding waterparks. I cannot believe they ever allowed them to SELF INSPECT safety. Especially with safety experts having concerns with this ride from the beginning. Had Kansas had stronger laws regarding waterparks, this wouldn't have happened to Caleb. It probably would have happened somewhere else though.

[@rc01010101]

Completely agree, it's very horrific, tragic and disgusting. I only bring politics into this because it is a central element given the entire circumstances from why the park was built there to who was there. A Republican lawmaker's own son becomes a victim of the typical Republican stance on regulation. The notion that people and their business goals will be self-regulating and do not need govt regulations or most regulations is very sorely and extremely misguided. Not everyone has ethics or acts wisely. As this video and all the coverage of this accident and these water parks clearly show, undereducated or poorly educated people do not understand what (as in how much) they do not understand. Ignorance is a great pusher to foolish ventures. Henry could have hired some very qualified people to help design this, might have been able to open it on time and not wasted money on rebuilds and likely come out ahead financially (avoiding the delays and rebuilds) and without hurting multiple people and decapitating a child who had no idea what could happen to him.

[@KutWrite]

Another example of why government is the worst way to do anything. The park rules said "No one under 14 allowed on the ride." A politician's son is allowed on, even though he's 10. Said son is killed. It's the park's fault?

[@xchalibur77]

@@KutWrite The weight was not met. It would been enough to put another kid on top or the raft to be able to carry weights for cases like this.

[@Sara-jayne79]

It was calebs father that helped pass that law, then fought for tighter laws after his sons death ! He has to live with that and payed the ultimate price !

[@daren7889]

KANSAS is a RED REPUBLICAN state! REPUBLICAN states HATE rules and regulations! Unlike the very, very BLUE state of Maryland! For example: MARYLAND forbids development on our Barrier Islands unlike Florida! Barrier Islands protect the mainland. Assateague Island State Seashore and National Park is only used for Camping! Development is not allowed! Sanibel/ Captiva Island got slammed by Hurricane IAN! These REGRESSIVE Southern states need to learn from smarter Northern States! IMHO! 🤔🤔🤔🤔🇩🇪🇨🇭🇺🇸💚💙💚💙💚🌊🌊

[@sikufox]

The moment in RCT when you build the ride, but don't test it before opening

[@ExpeditionThemePark]

I was tempted to put a clip of that in

[@alanrocks1234]

Clearly never built Dinghy Slides in RCT very known to fly off 😂

[@goblue5480]

We did a computer simulation of building coasters in physics class.... unfortunately my version came off the tracks from being too fast

[@extec101]

sounds like the loop at action park that got built and not tested properly before use.

[@RamiloTheDragon]

Fiasco Forest's folly

[@aidenparkhurst1191]

Lived about 15-20 min from this park and went there a few times as a kid. I was always too scared to ride Verruckt but I had some friends that did. Looking back, I'm glad I stayed away from it.

[@hakeempokedex9814]

I will never get over the discount prostitute for 10 day passes. This guy really messed up his entire family’s futures.

[@SweetestHoney86]

I thought prostitute was some kinda typo... I've since finished the video

[@stevetournay6103]

Probably not, actually. Just put a bit of a dent in the net worth...

[@Whyusemyname]

The best part is, I’m pretty sure the park had closed for the season at that point and it never reopened so those passes were useless. I hope he paid with the passes because he was too broke and didn’t have all the cash but he was probably just being a cheap ass like he was know to be.

[@DL-fl5ul]

This is why people consider those who don't go to college as losers. Didn't see his UT educated brother do this. Nope, was the non college educated despite his family having plenty money to pay for him to go. it's one thing to be broke and not go to college. It's another to come from a family with millions and not go to college. You really have to be a f*ck up to be the 2nd.

[@alexlents4689]

I’ll never understand why they thought it was a good idea to put a *hill* on a water slide with no upstop system

[@racookster]

Because Jeff wouldn't believe anyone who told him his idea was fundamentally flawed. I suspect a combination of riches and meth convinced him that he was a genius. No one could tell him squat.

[@KingRCT3]

To be fair tho, there are many waterslides in operation today with hills. For instance all the Masterblasters (invented by this family, now manufactured by White Water), the ProSlide versions, and some Polin slides that relies entierely on gravity with no water-jets or LSM. There is also that slide in Italy in Caneva Aquapark that is famous for its hill where you're likely to go airborn. And of course none of them feature any upstop.

[@kevzilla2336]

The craziest part is that @29:14 you can see what look like some sort of upstop or alignment system at the start of the ride... yet they decided it wasn't needed at the hill...

[@Whyusemyname]

I think their upstop system was the netting. It did its job.

[@overlordsmashalot3891]

> let's put hill on slide death > tweak death > tweak death > tweak danger > release to public

[@Soooooooooooonicable]

My heart sinks every time I see that picture of Caleb. I still think about his older brother who witnessed the aftermath.

[@AlvinSeville1]

IKR Everything just didn't add up.

[@shahrzadmassiha7253]

Aw man.....I remember watching the Xtreme Waterparks episode that covered this episode and my dad who was an engineering professor just shook his head and mentioned about how dangerous it was

[@R4ZOR154]

I was a lifeguard at that Schlitterbahn for four summers, '11 to '14 so I wasn't there for the accident but that slide always gave me a bad feeling. I never got to operated it because they only let the more experienced lead lifeguards run it. Which is understandable since most of the regular lifeguards weren't even 18. When the details of the accident came out, I was shocked that they let that kid ride in the first place. According to the rules when I was working there he was too young, too short and placed in the wrong spot on the tube for the ride. In front ahead of two larger adults the front of that tube catching air was almost inevitable with that kind weight imbalance.

[@michelleb7399]

I was wondering about that, meaning about his size and his location in placement. As a kid who rode a lot of rides, water and otherwise, i remember having to wait out my turn in order for heavier/larger riders to be allowed on certain rides to balance the weight, etc.

[@freeculture]

Exactly, at the very least he should have gone in the middle. but even so the total weight of the raft may have been too low, so two big noes the rider operator could have spotted and prevented. But you can see in this very video they seemed to often put the younger kids in the front seat, so the park wasn't instructing the operators properly either.

[@daren7889]

KANSAS is a REPUBLICAN state! The so called "PRO-LIFE" party! Where Life begins at conception and ends at BIRTH! All they really care about is MONEY! IMHO! MARYLANDER here! 🤔🤔🇩🇪🇨🇭🇺🇸💙🌊💙🌊💙🌊💙🌊💙🌊💙🌊

[@forasago]

I'm baffled that you and two others are discussing the placement of a rider on a ride *as a factor in how safe the ride would be*. That should never be a factor whatsoever. The ride should work with no riders on it, with four obese people on it, with any random mix of small children and giant adults etc. There needs to be a big TOLERANCE around the possible scenarios. The moment you're building a ride that only works safely under certain conditions that require a team of lifeguards to oversee you're already recklessly endangering people.

[@TheSetadoon]

I was a lifeguard at KC schlitterbahn from its construction (they hired us early and made us do jobs such as sweeping newly built footpaths and sanding and painting lockers) from roughly 2008ish-2010ish. I remember in 2008 there was a selection of lifeguards as to who would be supervisors, one of the supervisors chosen was the general manager of this park when the accident occurred. I remember being salty I was passed over but looking back I am glad I moved on...that being said, almost 100% of the equipment used in that park was driven north from texas...picnic tables, lockers, section of ride...they also brought their entire labor force from texas as well. Point is...I think they were trying to cut costs in every way they could. The general manager who I knew back then was a pretty nice guy...hardworking too...oh well.

[@turbojeremy13]

Should have left the air time hill out. That was the dangerous part. Would have still been a record breaker without it

[@GoetiaTV]

This is a terrifying story. Thank you for telling it but man… this is going to stick with me. So many moments of people saying “no, you can’t do that”.

[@ExpeditionThemePark]

Thanks for watching

[@rabidbigdog]

Land of the free!

[@hypotheticaltapeworm]

The absolute unwillingness to take any shred of accountability for this by the family is infuriating.

[@silmarian]

This feels like something that would have happened in the 70s or 80s, not just a few years ago.

[@VidaBlue317]

Yeah I think there was a water park in New Jersey that had several deaths, and I don't even think that's why it closed -- but that was the '90s, so the possibility of death probably added to its popularity and mystique 😂

[@silmarian]

@@VidaBlue317 Action Park, yeah. Not many people died, at least as compared to amusement parks in general at the time and supposedly none after the late 80s. Injuries were a different story, though. They had a ride not unlike this one, but it was fully enclosed on the hill. It shut down the first time in the 90s.

[@someotherdude]

@@VidaBlue317 I went there, it was called 'Action Park'. I was a teenager as were my friends. The place kicked the hell out of us, we were all sore and black and blue, we saw several people get hurt there. Crazy how easily you could get hurt.

[@pinkdarkman]

Welcome to Republicans' America. Take away all the safety laws that were written in blood in the 80s because you care more about companies than people, then be shocked when the laws you got rid of would have saved your son's life. Truly no care at all for anyone's well being. They only care about shoving as much money in their pockets as possible. Well, he got his wish. He sacrificed his son for 20 million dollars. And they say human sacrifice doesn't exist anymore.

[@lanceware2417]

What I don’t get is if it was so unsafe that they had to put a wire mesh cage around it to keep the rafts from going airborne, how would that have made it any safer? People would just hit the cage, which is exactly what happened. It boggles my mind that this ever got built.

[@mattk8810]

They didnt expect the person to be beheaded…

[@platovaya]

​@@mattk8810but.. alone when you realize they were aware, did calculations, had the information about the speed.. To me, it looks like a grater you pass at 60mph at a distance of.. 50cm? Well, nein, danke!

[@moonlightstudios6479]

Jeez. I remember watching a show on television about this when they were still designing it. It was supposed to be this incredible waterslide. The dummies they sent down kept losing their heads.

[@ExpeditionThemePark]

Yeah!

[@Kurt1969]

And that's how Caleb passed sadly enough. I can't imagine the horror from the other riders on board. I can't remember where I read this but heard Caleb's head had hit one of the passengers behind him and that was one of the injuries suffered. So tragic and I had no idea how rushed this project was as well as not being designed by a real engineer. Had I known that, I would have never stepped into the raft. Three days before the accident! I had no desire to go to the park, but my brother wanted to go so we did. That slide was not fun. It was rough and not in the least bit enjoyable. I made a comment below that it was literally like being tossed of a building in a raft with weight in it!

[@Kurt1969]

@@ExpeditionThemePark That was excellent and tasteful. Thank you. It was hard driving by that slide before they tore it down. So sad.

[@michelleb7399]

When the tragedy occurred I could hardly think of it beyond through the parents’ perspective and somewhat of the general others who were there, witnessed it… but to be a passenger with Caleb… unspeakable trauma. I loved water slides, roller coasters, all that stuff as a kid. I never had any fear, having fully trusted that the engineers knew what they were doing and there’s “no way” adults would allow these things to be built and put their (brand) name on it if they didn’t make completely 💯 sure it was totally safe. There are still no words to describe the individual nor collective trauma things like this cause.

[@zukostryder]

@@Kurt1969🫣🫣🫣

[@evdiep2164]

I loved Extreme Water parks! It would come on at around 8:00pm and my parents would call me up to their room to watch it. I remember seeing the episode where they we're constructing Verrukt some time around late 2014 to early 2015, before the accident happened. I particularly enjoyed how large the slide was and deemed it my favourite episode. It's crazy to me that such a fond memory of mine was linked to such a horrible tragedy. R.I.P Caleb, you were taken too soon.

[@leonideschnuppe]

'Schlitterbahn' is not a made up german word. It realy exists in german language and means "sliding surface made of ice or smoothed and icy snow". We used to make these in winter in the schoolyard when I went to primary school 😊 Oh and the news anchors in the video funnywise pronounce 'Schlitterbahn' 'Schlidderbahn'. So it sounds like my regional german dialect 😅

[@Dr-Weird]

Kansas has a huge German immigrant population, not modern mind you but from the wild west days. German Mennonites I believe was the majority.

[@ClementinesmWTF]

Texas actually does have a German dialect (Texas German) and New Braunfels is part of the belt of cities that has it. It’s not a surprise that it’s pronounced the way it is given that’s how the dialect sounds anyways (imagine a Texas-accented German).

[@leonideschnuppe]

@@Dr-Weird I just googled "Deutsche in Kansas" (Germans in Kansas) and found a lot of websides in German language about the best German restaurants, stores or bakeries there. Oh and blogs by people who moved from Germany to Kansas or planning to do so. I didn't know this is a thing.

[@leonideschnuppe]

@@ClementinesmWTF I knew about Texas German before, but now did a bit more research. I liked that in English it's 'airplane', in German it's 'Flugzeug' and in Texas German it's 'Luftschiff', what means 'airship' in German. Confusing 🙈

[@ChrisHilgenberg]

Rare/weird example of the t to d switch, but instead of an English word (like water being pronounced 'wader' and metal 'medal') it affected the German word's pronunciation here 🤣

[@KingOfErehwon]

I am no engineer, but as soon as I saw the netting over the top of the slide, I instantly cringed as I imagined being shredded on the netting or my head slammed against the hoops holding up that netting if the raft went airborne -- which is exactly what ended up happening to someone. How could that not have been obvious to the designers? Did that basic insight actually require a higher education? Goodness!

[@stevetournay6103]

They were rich, arrogant, and didn't give a crap...

[@leeharrison8222]

@@stevetournay6103 And one of the 'designers' had a history of being a meth addict

[@lisafarrell5996]

That is basically what happened the little boy flew up and hit his head on one of the steel netholders and he.was decapitated. 😢

[@swirlingabyss]

A lot of their rides had that netting.

[@StuartFerguson55]

It's clear that your not an engineer because you would have seen the simple solution to this problem. Just remove the netting. Easy peasy.

[@breel75]

I remember this slide from before it opened. My mom said that it was gonna kill someone. I didn't believe it. But just wow.

[@Roadrunner0077]

Born and raised KC ....never visited there and always had a bad vibe seeing it from the legends

[@moonmikuuu]

I always felt connected with this story, I have a little brother named Caleb, and I would be heartbroken of something like this happened to him. R.I.P. little angel. You didn't deserve to die. ❤

[@verh1014]

First of all, great video on this topic. I was unaware of how much the builders were hiding from the public about the lack of safety for the ride. My father was a carpenter working for someone higher up at the park and our family was given season passes for a few of the first years. What I remember most about the park was the wavy river and the wet handprints of all the kids along the walls trying to time their jumps with the waves and leave the highest handprint. My brother and I would have a blast doing this for hours. Now as a grown-up, all I can think about is Caleb's brother and family, and all the time and fun they will never get back with him. RIP Caleb, I'm so sorry.

[@regorRegor]

Your heart is in the right place.

[@teresaratliff8537]

😊

[@jaball77]

It's despicable that nobody ended up going to jail for this. It's insane that they decided not to retry the case, especially when they concealed and destroyed evidence... Sounds like home cookin' at the DA's office to me. Unconscionable.

[@YellaBellaReno]

Any one person who would have went to jail for this would have been a scapegoat. This took many, many people’s’ incompetence to occur.

[@larrywalsh9939]

Every person who had a part in designing, building, and okaying this disaster of a ride should currently be serving time in prison for murder. They knew it wasn't safe. They opened it to the public anyway, and they ripped the head off of a 10-year-old child because they apparently thought professional engineers don't know anything and should be disregarded when they say the ride is inherently and grievously unsafe.

[@trishoconnor2169]

Double jeopardy had probably attached, so the prosecutor didn't get a second chance. It's frustrating, but I wouldn't want to live in a society where prosecutors could just keep trying people over and over until they got a guilty verdict. Unfortunately, that means that sometimes we have to let some of the truly guilty walk away.

[@larrywalsh9939]

@@trishoconnor2169 in my opinion, it should have been a mistrial and they should have been retried.

[@trishoconnor2169]

@@larrywalsh9939 But that's not how the Constitution works. If the mistrial is after the trial is officially started, then I don't think they can try again. In this particular case, that's very frustrating. They probably could have gotten the indictments without showing that video to the grand jury, and then they might have been able to get it in at the actual trial, when the defendants' attorneys could have added whatever information they felt appropriate. But now we'll never know. I just hope those men have carried a sense of their responsibility for this. I think it would have been good if the settlement of the lawsuit had included a requirement that on a regular basis they be shown age-progressed photos of what Caleb would have looked like if he had lived. Caleb at 11, at 15, at 20 … That's the person their eagerness to be the biggest and fastest took away from the world.

[@fairyhollowcreationsmarsde2777]

That poor wee child an avoidable tragedy, your heart just breaks for the family. Safety should always be put first.

[@imageword5576]

Something like this happened to me on a water slide a few years ago. It was the kind you go down without a raft, and there was an overhead ceiling to the slide. The angle was so steep and I gained so much speed that I went airborne and hit my head on the ceiling several times and lost control of my body altogether for a couple seconds.

[@endoraismygma]

Yikes. I hope you reported it. Scary

[@purpurina5663]

The same thing happened to my cousin me, except there was no overhead ceiling. She came off the "vertical", straight down slide most of the ride down. She was trembling, so scared she couldn't swim away when she got to the receiving pool. Meanwhile, I was on the "wavy" slide (no turns, just downward waves) and on each curve I bounced about a foot off the slide, my legs and arms completely out. I remember shooting into the pool with my heart in my throat, my bathing suit up to my armpits, and 💩 about to come out. No laughing matter though! Never again!

[@jodysin7]

If my son died on that, 20 million wouldn't replace him.

[@suze816]

20 Mil wouldn't replace ANY family member.. It was merely the settlement amount..

[@stevetournay6103]

By which I think you mean you'd have pursued Henry relentlessly as a criminal matter? Damn straight I would too...and BTW I don't even have kids.

[@kenzieplays890]

No amount of money would replace a family member

[@mikeh8416]

@@kenzieplays890 Except my x-wife...

[@SuperM789]

???? then would you prefer not having any money? beggars can't be chosars

[@evanswackyvideos6027]

A grown man said we were airborne and I'm still shaking, and they allowed a 10 year old on this! This is a roller coaster design, not meant to ever be a safe slide!

[@muppetsretrofan8873]

This is one of the most tragic theme park accidents ever [right next to Great Adventure's Haunted Castle fire, another accident that could've been avoided], and there were so many red flags that were ignored. I feel really bad for Caleb's family.

[@chellesama8256]

His father routinely voted against regulation of businesses. Reap what is sown.

[@KamalasFakePolls]

​@@chellesama8256🙄

[@phyrr2]

@@chellesama8256 That doesn't really say much dude, you're grasping at karmatic straws for that one.

[@Wulfslove]

@@chellesama8256 I agree but disagree as well. That little boy didn't deserve to reap what his father had sown, except in a Biblical sense which is abhorrent to me but probably acceptable to his parents. Every god I have ever studied is either a fraud or an evil being. Imagine you are a good god, now imagine that you know everything that has and will ever happen, now imagine that you are all-powerful and can right any wrong with a mere thought. There is no evidence that all of these things can be true of god at the same time. Evil is allowing or enjoying the pain of another against their will. Good is wanting to ease or erase that pain no matter who or what is experiencing that pain. What all-knowing, all-powerful god that isn't evil could allow children to have excruciating bone cancer and die slowly? That happens all the time in our world along with a trillion other atrocities that god allows (if he/they exist). I'm still a spiritual person, I just don't believe in all-knowing, all-powerful, benevolent beings. I believe in small gods or spirits that can grant favors but can't fix or see everything.

[@kristoffer8609]

@@chellesama8256 Disgusting way to think. The poor boy had absolutely nothing to do with that, and his father didn't deserve his death for it. That you have likes on your reply is absolutely abhorrent and says a lot.

[@vholt1000]

I live in Kansas City and I remember watching it get built. I’m a huge daredevil, but something looked off about this slide. So I was never really keen on trying it. My best friend asked me if I wanted to go on it with him. I told him no, something is off about that slide. I think someone may actually die on it. Two weeks later I was proven right. How awful. I wish I had been wrong.

[@vholt1000]

@@allancouceiro9255 I’m not. I was right about it.

[@kriscynical]

I appreciate that you didn't use the channel's normal intro music for this one. It was a nice way to show respect for the tragedy of it. Kudos for that.

[@elevatoralarmcoasterandarc1214]

I get it.

[@Delibro]

I would have appreciated if he wouldn't have used the sensation gasping intro that he did.

[@smileychess]

@@Delibro - Can't please everyone.

[@Delibro]

@@smileychess yes you can, just leave the sensation gasping intro, so easy.

[@nate0031]

@@Delibro And then someone else would complain about something else. If it bugs you, watch something else.

[@cassandralyris4918]

"We're redefining what the safety standards are." is code speak for, "We don't know what we're doing and there are no safety standards in place because no one's been dumb enough to try this before. YOLO!"

[@gentrywalker]

It's absolutely wild watching this because my dad was business partners with Jeff BEFORE Schlitterbahn was founded, and designed rides for it in the 80s. I've heard a lot more than this from his firsthand account.

[@rayden.richter]

As a 4th generation New Braunfels citizen and former Schlitterbahn lifeguard and bartender, great job researching for this video! Such an extremely sad situation for everyone but it was very interesting to see this level of detail about a major event so close to home

[@antivanelfroot6111]

My sister could have been hurt on this ride. Something that wasn't mentioned in this video was the velcro seatbelts that would easily come apart. My sister's came undone on the hill and if she hadn't snapped it back down, she likely would have been injured or worse. I grew up going to this park. It was fun, unique, and worth going to with friends and family. But it hurts to know that after all the cover-ups and failures, the charges were dropped.

[@flamingspinach]

You're telling me they actually used velcro for safety restraints on this ride? Jesus...

[@TheZackofSpades]

Not every failure warrants or requires a conviction. It does sound to me like the consequences of this disaster were swift, severe, and equitable. While maybe not everyone that failed Caleb was held accountable, it doesn’t like Mr. Henry will ever leave this behind him

[@세빈-f3h]

i can’t believe this happened. SO many people failed that little boy… the second i saw that design i audibly went “oh hell no” i can’t believe they ever allowed that vision to come to life…

[@assistantverma]

I was a test and validation engineer. I also had no formal education beyond high school. What I find interesting about this story is how they designed the test slide with virtually no variation in test cases and no plan by engineers. This is WHY we have to have stupid regulations and this is why people cannot even build a shed without needing a permit. They just threw some sandbags in a raft. They followed no established standards or protocols. This isn't about formal education. This is about how the state of Kansas ALLOWED arrogant, ignorant people to open a park out of greed (on all sides). And while I am sure Jeff holds a lot of the responsibility, the true people to blame are all of the officials and attorneys who probably took pay-offs to introduce inadmissible evidence and to look the other way when it was time to inspect the slide. They DID know exactly what there were doing and they let money drive the entire show. I am now able to make sure my son never has to work. But, I will make sure he is not in the position of designing water slides just because he thinks it's fun, only to cause a tragedy and end up a drug addict because he was raised with privileges he didn't earn.

[@trexvalleygirl2770]

Wow. You did a great job on this documentary. The manner in which you handled the child's death was respectful and considerate. RIP Caleb.

[@RubbishNotTrash]

I remeber being at that park when theyre were still building it, and another time when they were testing it, and then one last time a week before the accident. It just looked like an accident waiting to happen. The whole kansas city park always felt rushed and half done to me. It was a weird feeling after seeing the news about the accident because a week before I almost rode the slide but bailed last seccond. Ever since then, before they took the it down, seeing the slide in the distance whenever I had to drive by felt so ominous.

[@spinlok3943]

Oh absolutely. The rest of the park just looked so cheap and half baked. The service at the concession stand was abysmal too.

[@KylanHurt]

As a civil engineer, I find it hilarious that enough people came together to build this thing, and apparently no one spoke up adamantly enough about the flawed design.

[@coldramen8620]

I was a lifeguard at the New Braunfels location around when this happened. It was absolutely horrific to hear about.

[@GenGamesUniverse]

"Neither did Henry Ford, but HE built a car!" Uh no sir, he did NOT build a car, he DESIGNED a car. He got his team to BUILD it.

[@clarasn40]

8:05 for anyone interested, insano is still open and working, it’s located in Fortaleza, Ceará. i grew up watching people go down this slide (but i never had the courage to do it myself). they even made a mini version of insano in the 2010’s. the difference is that the park in brazil actually followed safety protocols and had qualified engineers building (and maintaining) the slide. it’s crazy to think that the same person who came up with the idea for insano was so horribly irresponsible and made something that put thousands of people in danger and killed that sweet boy. he and the other culprits should be rotting in prison

[@Casemiro_jogador_brasileiro]

The American waterslide should never have been formatted as a rollercoaster type slide in the first place

[@danielbrennan9122]

Eu sou Americano mas ja foi la 3 vezes, eu adoro Beach Park e o Insano. Tambem gosto muito a piscina de ondas! 🤙🏻

[@Casemiro_jogador_brasileiro]

@@danielbrennan9122 eitah!! Muito interessante!!

[@danielbrennan9122]

@@Casemiro_jogador_brasileiro Eu amo Ceara' muito! 🫶🏼

[@JoshuaHo-i6b]

I disagree, you accept that there is possible risk on any form of entertainment ride, anything can go wrong, in this case I'm betting that Caleb was too light for the ride, blame the operator who let him on.

[@rileydport]

I live in Kansas City and I remember going to this park. I knew someone who was an assistant manager when the accident happened. She saw it with her own eyes. Traumatizing for her, and a lot of the upper management at the park practically cut and run. Seeing images of that slide still make my stomach turn, as I remember looking up at it in person. What's wild is the New Braunfels, Texas location is still open.

[@your_belief_vs_everything]

I think most people just assumed that the people who design and operate water park attractions, are skilled designers/engineers. It's scary to know just how far money will get you despite having no qualifications.

[@amsf1]

People dont realize how many of us escaped death at these waterparks in the 80's and 90's.... I almost drowned in a packed out wavepool one time

[@tim3172]

@robolgatree5815 Payed means to waterproof a boat.

[@Amoebatirith]

I got dragged under by the current from the wave in the large wave pool that made the single "tsunami" large wave. I got tumbled along the bottom, into the shallows before getting lodged under someone's innertube. I barely got out from under them before I started inhaling water. When I surfaced, coughing, sputtering, and gasping for breath, the asshole that had been on top of me was laughing, thinking it was funny that I had been stuck there. My dad tried to get me to return back to the deep end of that wave pool and I refused. I would not die because of a series of unfortunate events leading up to someone else's hubris being the final nail in the coffin. I stayed to the shallows where I could at least touch the ground for the rest of the time.

[@boojieboo7510]

I remember this story in the news at the time. The kid was WAY too small to be riding it, but that his wealthy father pulled strings to make it happen.

[@nataliekubus1041]

No that's untrue. The owner dropped the weight restrictions as long as the occupants in the raft didn't exceed 550 lbs. His father had nothing to do with that. Nobody pulled strings to allow him to ride.

[@boojieboo7510]

@@nataliekubus1041 Must have been a different terrifying slide in the Midwest that looked exactly the same when I read about it in the news?

[@getnohappy]

I mean, I'm not an engineer, but I have built a waterslide in Rollercoaster Tycoon...

[@ExpeditionThemePark]

Me too poorly

[@chili.crispy]

This tragedy was so easily avoidable. It's an elementary dynamics problem that would take a competent engineer 10 minutes to solve, but Jeff Henry was just too stubborn to take anyone else's advice.

[@majorpwner241]

I can solve it without being an engineer - just remove the second hill. Why they were so obsessed with having that I'm not even sure. Hell have a ramp a bit further down that launches the raft into a deep pool with lifeguards on standby. There were plenty of ways to keep the ride exhilarating without that second hill launching you into safety netting.

[@majorpwner241]

For that matter, a simple safety cage (roll bars) on the raft and a solid tube over the second hill could in theory make the ride safe. Again, plenty of solutions. It was a flawed design.

[@heyaisdabomb]

@@majorpwner241 The reality is, this is the problem of being uneducated. You don't know how little you know, and you don't realize this until your ability learn complex physics and engineering is pushed to your limit. You'll respect science a lot more when after going through calculus and physics college classes. Not saying you need college, but also, don' discredit how it changes your perspective and mindset. I know I see the world differently after taking calculus.

[@majorpwner241]

@@heyaisdabomb You don't have to try so hard to justify your overpriced college education to me. What's better than college is seeing people who attended and got their degree being shown up by those with real-world experience on the job. Universities might have been something once. They're largely a joke now... just another racket. I'll take someone with 10 years experience on the job over someone fresh out of school with a doctorate every single time.

[@justinsimons5633]

@@majorpwner241 @heyaisdabomb is technically right in that you really don't know just how difficult of a problem this would be to even properly understand without several college level mechanics classes. Calculus and physics are certainly not necessary, and he didn't need to be such a pompous dick about education, but you're not going to be designing safe revolutionary water slides (the intent of this ride) without a formal education in mechanics.

[@maximillianlylat1589]

Im from New Braunfels, schlitterhahn was always such a big name, brought in lots tourists, also a popular summer job for the locals. Doesnt help the rivers nearby are a big deal in their own right. This episode hit me the closest to home despite the incident being at a further location. My heart goes out to Caleb's family

[@A-Gordon-Brown-Stan-Account]

Nice profile picture.

[@coldramen8620]

I'm from New Braunfels too. Did my time as a lifeguard at Schlitterbahn. I remember when the story of the death came out. It was absolutely awful.

[@sparkyobrian6417]

I grew up there too, left in 82. i personally didnt care for schlitterbahn, we hung out at stinky falls in highschool

[@legendaryash]

I am from San Antonio, and in the late 80's to early 90's after our neighborhood summer swim leagues we would always end the season with a trip to Schlitterbahn. It was such a great park because there always seemed like there was tons to do, especially when they opened up the other parts of the park, and they would let you bring food and stuff so it wasn't even that expensive. It's sad they got so big and let money and crazy ideas not only kill Caleb but ruin the legacy of their family as well.

[@TexasHoldem-p9q]

I graduated in 1980 from high school our class went to the Dude’s Ranch and lazy river. I remember a group of us girls getting caught in an under current after being flipped out of the inter-tube. Luckily I could swim but a couple of girls couldn’t. The struggle became really intense with a lot of screaming and panicking. Fortunately several white boys who were strong swimmers came and rescued them. I love water and fell in love with Schlitterbahn. As an adult I took my kids there in the 90’s. I rode all of the insane rides and ran off and left my kids with their friends, which I would never do as a cautious mother but something about that park brings the kid out in me. I hate to hear of this tragedy which could have been avoided. I also think back about the safety of some of the rides I been on. I believe he didn’t receive enough time, and the “good ole boy” system was at play. Texas is a hot mess when it comes to justice. But karma is real, imo.

[@nixfred]

At 33:16 - the irony that they are basically ignoring that people’s heads will be slammed into the netting yet they are wearing saftey helmets indoors.

[@iliketrains3546]

I find it ridiculous that after numerous tests of the slide, they didn’t think of removing the airtime hill as it was causing most of the issues, even when they redesigned it

[@grymare5159]

I don't really get the appeal of a waterslide where you have to sit in a raft with seats and a seat belt. At that point just build a regular roller coaster with some water effects.

[@B3Band]

Imagine having parents so rich that you could refuse to get any sort of education, be an asshole to everyone, and decide "I want my job to be drawing water slides"

[@georgemartin1436]

Felt guilty laughing at this comment... Yes, he lived the dream of a four year old.

[@mavor101]

@@georgemartin1436 And then killed someone and maimed a bunch of others. "Gee goly, hope the rafts flying off the slide in testing don't also fly off with people in them! These nets sure are going to make things safe.. hitting a hoop at 60mph should be fine!"

[@yushkovyaroslav]

I think its dishonest to say that, considering the poor maintenance and quality of inspections and crew training that was done for the ride. And millions of people that went on it without incident.

[@mavor101]

@@yushkovyaroslav *millions* of people, did NOT go on it, and there were frequent major accidents/injuries reported pretty much as soon as it started. The design was idiotic from the start... why would you put hoops and netting a foot above your riders' heads when you know they are moving so fast even hitting that net/hoops would cause MASSIVE injuries as well? Does it take a PHD level engineer to know what happens when a squishy human face hits *anything* at 60mph????

[@yushkovyaroslav]

@@mavor101 The ride was active for nearly 2 years. The traction of the water park is about 500k-1M people if we assume half the people went on it once and half of those people went multiple times. It estimates between 750k-1.5M people. In total there were 13 incidents and 1 death reported on the slide. Every year there are 449 injuries on the rollercoasters. 89 are serious 5 are fatal. Yes, the slide would be above this average. Yes, I do agree that the net with metal rings was a major flaw. And probably the main design flaw at the end of the day. The rest came from poor communication of restrictions and poor maintenance of the slide. Also, you can jump into a net traveling at terminal velocity (200 km/h) as long as you decelerate gradually. The problem here was the net was too resistant due having reinforced metal in it. But the main issue on that ride was that the kid was positioned in the front of the raft on his 2nd ride on that slide. Making the raft nose light. If he was not 10 years old or he was riding in any other position in the raft. The incident would have not happened. Again, I really believe it would be dishonest not to take those factors into the account. Because if every ride ignored height/weight regulations as well as proper maintenance then half of all extreme rides would be way more deadly regardless of design.

[@moiraatkinson]

What a shocking story! I feel for the other family members but I have NO sympathy for Henry. I’m also gobsmacked that in the modern USA, people can build a dangerous water slide, operate it and charge the public and the state in question doesn’t seem to care or even inspect it. Originally advised that nobody under 16 should ride it, he covered any warning with stickers and sent someone’s 10 year old child to their death. I don’t know what he’s doing out of jail tbh.

[@KittenBowl1]

I remember seeing this on the news when the tragic incident happened. I saw something that looked like red paint splashed all over the net and the second part of the slide. It was a horrific scene and they vividly described this on the news of how and what happened. It was so shocking I recall this scene clearly. They later removed the clips. My heart sank when I saw the boy’s photo on TV news. They didn’t announce how much they settled out of court then, wow $20 million now I know.

[@LadyBeyondTheWall]

Yeah, it's one of those horrible things you see that many years later you can still picture in your mind absolutely perfectly, like it's been burned into your brain. Ugh, it's awful and sometimes wish it was something brains didn't do.

[@TheGlovener1985]

​@@LadyBeyondTheWallyup, no wonder why some turn to drugs. More power to ya if you can power through without the need.

[@janetgood6332]

It was very visible from the busy highway, and it remained that way until the police investigation was complete. It was so horrific. I'm sure there are pictures of it somewhere, but at the very least it should not have been on the news.

[@lemonbreadd4427]

that slide looks like something I would make in rollercoaster tycoon to watch dinghies explode

[@XlittleXdrummerXgirl]

For anyone who's interested in more of the story, Texas Monthly did a quite good longform piece a few years ago, that touches on everything from the history of Schlitterbahn to the impact of this tragedy on the victim's family.

[@randomnobody8770]

He paid for a prostitute with theme park passes while on a meth binge during his murder trial. Yeah, I'm interested.

[@derekstocker6661]

RIP Caleb, such a sad and needless tragedy.

[@bamainguy]

excellent piece (and magazine in general)

[@huflpuf5034]

The boy's brother saw it all happen and ran to try and notify someone. One cannot imagine what trauma he went through.

[@mischr13]

@@randomnobody8770 wait, what? who?

[@wesleyrhoads1894]

I was at a hotel across the highway when this happened, I still remember seing the first responders and knowing something serious had happened.

[@agdewey]

What a heartbreaking story. They installed netting, to prevent the rafts taking off, but didn't think about what would happen, if a raft did take off! 😱

[@Kunfucious577]

It’s weird cause when I heard about the net, I thought about what if you get caught in the net. If the netting was like a steel piece, you’d get graded like cheese. If it was netting, I’d imagine a lot of bone dislocations. He just wanted it to get done so bad that he rationalized everything that could go wrong.

[@calebwells9838]

I grew up in Missouri and my mom was obsessed with the Park and Jeff Henry, we had season passes and we went all the time. I went to college in Kansas and was at the park the weekend that Caleb passed. It’s a weekend I’ll never forget

[@tdickensheets]

August 7, 2016, Caleb Schwab, the 10-year-old son of Kansas state representative Scott Schwab, died while riding Verrückt. The raft he was riding went airborne during the ascent of the second hump and struck a metal support of the netting, decapitating him.[3][25][26] The other two passengers, both women, were injured in the incident - one suffered a broken jaw, while the other suffered a facial bone fracture and needed stitches.[27] In the immediate aftermath, Schlitterbahn Kansas City was closed pending an inspection.[25][28] Although the park reopened three days later, the ride remained closed.[27][29][30]

[@ZontarDow]

The worst part of it all is that the accident, construction problems before that, and testing problems before even that, would have likely all been avoided if qualified engineers had been hired to design and test the ride.

[@larrywalsh9939]

They DID consult with engineers, including engineers from the company I worked for at the time, Whitewater West. The engineers told them things they didn't want to hear, so the henry family refused to hire them as contracted consultants.

[@carriecree1789]

I recall at the time the report was the child should not have been allowed in the ride due to age and weight, but the parents insisted he not be left behind. The child was allowed to ride and that's the last thing he ever did. Sad.

[@larrywalsh9939]

@@carriecree1789I hadn't heard that, can't verify - however, I do know that the boy's father, the Kansas state representative, I believe, he was not on the ride. I don't know who were the two women on the raft with him.

[@cr4ckrocksteady]

@@larrywalsh9939 Scott Schwab was not on the ride but an interesting fact is that he is one of the lawmakers that happily allowed such insane, unsafe, unregulated waterparks to even exist in Kansas. Very sad his son lost his life for that, but that fact was always quite bone chilling to me. He is part of the cause of his own son's death.

[@josh6706]

Open air waterslides have never looked safe to me. All it would take is some kid freaking out or breaking the rules to end in tragedy. At least with roller coasters, you're strapped in.

[@FinlayDonavan]

I can’t understand why they chose to drop all charges rather than declare a mistrial and have a redo. I’m sure someone’s pockets got heavier from that decision…

[@katsetuis5ryan600]

It would have been hard To convict him of murder I believe

[@johnbrowneyes7534]

So there was nothing to keep the raft on the slide except the weight of the passengers? And that wire netting was a horrible idea.

[@behellmorph456]

The loss of an innocent life, the end of a family business, a place of joy for many people, all gone because someone was hellbent on getting some air time.

[@MM-fe9mz]

This story is traumatizing every time I hear it. What a horrible way to die. The level of negligence that allowed this to happen is insane. Never knew the parts of the company being sold and always kinda wondered what happened to the fort Lauderdale plans, thought FL got canceled due to the lawsuit from premier parks that owns Rapids waterpark in west palm beach FL. Interesting that the Kansas park totally failed after this, normally it seems parks can survive having patrons die, though this death was more horrific than most.

[@racookster]

Amusement park deaths are generally caused either by a malfunction or by a rider doing something stupid. This was neither. The slide performed as designed. It performed the only way it *could* perform. The basic design was deeply, tragically flawed. It was a death machine before it even left the drawing board.

[@MM-fe9mz]

@@racookster how this slide was ever allowed to be open to the public is atrocious. With it never having oversight by actual REAL engineers or being fully computer tested. Building solely through trial and ERROR feels like something from 100 years ago or even longer. Since even things like the Golden Gate Bridge were built before computers are is still standing.

[@ChrisHilgenberg]

It ultimately failed because KS residents were already pissed about the delays and how the construction was being done (multiple times saying residents wanted them to hire local groups to finish it, but were rebuffed), and the child killed I believe they said was son of one of the state representatives, so factoring both of those, with the completely avoidable tragedy if they just went through the proper way to safely design and test rides, a lot of residents probably felt that all the other slides the family designed were also suspect, and abruptly stopped supporting it.

[@StruttinJuttin1]

I’d say another reason is when cedar fair bought the other parks it declined to buy the Kansas park because it already owns oceans of fun about 30-40 minutes away.

[@larrywalsh9939]

It was a horrible way to die, probably more than you're aware. The woman who was in the raft, sitting just behind Caleb, had a broken jaw and skull fractures because she was struck violently by Caleb's severed head after it was ripped from his body. ... .... horrible way to die does not sum it up. The Henry family are responsible for the murder of this child.

[@gfdggdfgdgf]

Wow is this already 10 years ago? It feel the verrückt thing happened a few years ago.

[@rct3y]

As an engineer this is a really good case study. Thank you for this

[@alexlents4689]

Yeah. Rides can be created well in-house. The Beast at Kings Island is a great example: tallest fastest and longest wooden coaster when it opened, and built by 2 people at the park with no experience in Coaster engineering, and here it is over half a century and 50 million+ riders later with not a single incident on the record. To be fair, they did consult with someone who had been designing coasters for decades, and apart from the stats, the ride plays it pretty safe, but they actually used physics calculations rather than solely trial and error, and the ride was extensively tested over a long period of time.

[@larrybruce4856]

I can't believe they didn't take weight, speed and gravity into consideration when designing this ride. Seems like profit was more of a motive and safety was overlooked and took a back seat.

[@HalflingMarquee]

I actually rode this ride with my father. Our raft just barely lifted up a couple inches. You definitely felt the "hangtime" of the ride, though this shouldnt be a thing on waterslides