KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- A witness to the tragic death of a 10-year-old boy on the world's tallest water slide in Kansas has revealed gruesome details of how the boy died. A promotional video for a show about building the slide includes footage of two men riding a raft down a half-size test model and going slightly airborne as it crests the top of the first big hill. According to the police report, Caleb Schwab died of a neck injury and was decapitated while riding the 168-foot Verruckt water slide. Her case was also settled, according to her lawyer. The death seemed like an isolated accident until whistleblowers from Schlitterbahn revealed that experts . On June 16, 2016, Norris JJ Groves, the owner of a towing company in neighboring Missouri, rode Verrckt with his wife and son, according to the indictment. That meant having a ride at Schlitterbahn that no one had seen before, specifically at the only park outside of Texas that was still trying to make a splash. Kansas City Police confirmed the boy had died froma 'fatal neck injury at the end of the ride, in the pool'. In 2013, lifeguard Nico Benavides, 20, was killed at the company's park on South Padre Island, Texas, when a mechanical door slammed on the guard's head. I must communicate reality to all. On November 13, 2012, he was at a trade show when he was approached by producers from the Travel Channel who were working on a new show that looked at some of the most incredible water parks and water attractions in the world. I really am. with safety concerns now raised over the ride. The indictment against Miles and the park alleges that Verruckt met few, if any, industry standards and that Miles delayed or avoided necessary repairs, even after the ride's brake system failed. View our online Press Pack. The third suit was brought by Frances Logan which alleged she had been severely injured onthe park's King Kong River ride when theinner tube she was ridingtipped over and her left foot hit a concrete wall. Water Slide Death | Women in Raft With Victim Speak Out ABC News 14.1M subscribers Subscribe 1.7M views 6 years ago Hannah Barnes and Matraca Baetz both suffered facial injuries during the. Today Verrckt, the one-time eyesore on Interstate 435 and, ultimately, a sad symbol of hubris, hardship, and a horrific tragedy that could have been avoided, is gone. Media reports leading up to Verrckts opening touched on the rides age limit of fourteen, which, according to the indictment, the slides designers decided on after a consultant had recommended the age be sixteen. We may earn a commission from these links. ), The only time I saw the slide run successfully was on the Travel Channel episode, but I wouldnt even call that successful, said the lifeguard, who was part of a select group of employees present for the taping after the park closed that day. It remained closed today amidthe investigation. He and his wife, Michele, have four sons, Sprague said. 'Since the day he was born, he brought abundant joy to our family and all those he came in contact with,' the statement said. Many lawmakers were at Schlitterbahn for Elected Official Day. Two media sneak preview days in 2014 were cancelled because of problems with a conveyor system that hauls 100-pound rafts to the top of the slide. A promotional video for a show about building the slide includes footage of two men riding a raft down a half-size test model and going slightly airborne as it crests the top of the first big hill. Minuscule smatterings of people, mostly families and high schoolers on summer break, bounced from the rides and attractions that were still open. From the ninth floor of his office, staring at Verrckt was once inescapable: It [stood] as a monument to a murder.. In a January 25, 2019 court hearing, an attorney representing Henry & Sons Construction, Schlitterbahn's general contracting affiliate, argued that the evidence shown to the grand jurors was flimsy and inadmissable because it included clips from a scripted show highlighting the construction of the waterslide, the Kansas City Star reported. The Red Cross last year added training and certification specifically for extreme shallow water rescue. Man, are they hitting that net up there? Henry asked Schooley, according to the indictment. Email us attips@the-sun.co.ukor call 0207 782 4368. The 370-acre (1.5 km 2 ), $750 million development included a nearly 40-acre (160,000 m 2) waterpark, which is Schlitterbahn's fourth waterpark and its first outside Texas . When their raft went airborne at the second hill, Grovess face and forehead smashed into an overhead hoop and safety netting before the raft hit a concrete wall. But before the park closed for the day, the forty-one-year-old wanted to ride the slide he had heard so much about. The opening of the Verrckt was delayed several times as the development team made adjustments. KANSAS CITY, Kansas -- A witness to the tragic death of a 10-year-old boy on the world's tallest water slide in Kansas has revealed gruesome details of how the boy died. Challenging the laws of physics, the slide presents a drop from seventeen stories high, hitting up to sixty-five miles per hour and often leaving people soaking wet, shaking with a mixture of raw excitement and genuine fear. You feel nauseous driving around it, said Chris Kamler, a forty-six-year-old resident who worked across the highway from the water park when the slide was still standing. Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). The Wyandotte County coroner's office began a post-mortem examination on Monday. It opened in 2010, one of five water parks operated by the New Braunfels, Texas-based corporation, Schlitterbahn Waterparks & Resorts. Witness accounts on social media stated the weight of the 2 adult women and the boy did not equal 400 pounds. Well have more details for you and we will share them, she said, but right now our focus is with the family.. His case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. A reporter peppered Henry, who dreamed up and designed the Verrckt, with questions that have followed the sixty-three-year-old ever since that day in August. The 168ft-high Verruckt, which means "insane" in German, was certified as the world's tallest water slide by Guinness World Records. Those showed more than 4,200 people a year taken to emergency rooms to be treated for scrapes, concussions, broken limbs, spinal injuries and other such injuries suffered on public waterslides. Verruckt was certified as the world's tallest waterslide by Guinness World Records. DeSantis coming to CA as new poll shows him leading Trump. "That's why a full investigation is necessary. I just need to hear you say it: Is my son dead? Schwab reportedly remembered asking someone at the scene. During the former employees final summer in 2014, the one in which Verrckt was set to open, the lifeguard remembered how Schlitterbahn tended to do the test runs after the park closed at 6 p.m., away from the public. Authorities initially said the victim was 12 years old, but Clint Sprague, a pastor acting as the family's spokesman, said Caleb was 10 and is one of the couple's four sons. Jess Stanford and Melanie Gocke were at the Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas City, Kansas, on the same day a ten-year-old boy was killed on the 17-storey ride last week. Yikes that is awful. The Verrckt being built at the Schlitterbahn Kansas City Waterpark, on November 11, 2013. In fact, People reports that the initial opening date in 2014 was moved several times due to glitches with the ride. Tyler Austin Miles,. Tragic child Caleb Schwab, 10, was the son of state Rep. Scott Schwab. The Lagoon at the original Schlitterbahn, in New Braunfels, in 1991. WARNING: The details in this . Schlitterbahn has been sued three times since 2014 although never for the waterslide (file picture). By A water park and a former employee have been indicted in the death of 10-year-old Caleb Schwab, who was decapitated while riding the Verrckt waterslide in 2016. Schlitterbahn is a family waterpark, but this isnt a family ride., On July 10, 2014, the slide opened to the public. I stared at the white waterslide once described by Henry as an erotic piece of artits curves and drops were as grand and ambitious as advertised. There, Schlitterbahn was born. The only thing Sanford, a self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie, did know on this summer road trip was that Schlitterbahn Kansas City had an attraction no other water park could claim: the Verrckt, the tallest waterslide in the world. Kansas City police spokesman Officer Cameron Morgan said no police report was available of the incident and deferred additional questions to the park. The park had a lot of promise, but also a lot of issues, said an industry veteran who has developed water-park rides throughout the world, including with Henry and Schooley at Schlitterbahn Kansas City. Two horrified witnesses have spoken out about the gruesome scene when a boy was decapitated by the world's largest waterslide. This is a designed product for TV, absolutely cannot be anything else. The indictment says a video shows Caleb was following all rider instructions when he died. And she hasn't removed her tweet about it being a decapitation. As he looked down, he says he saw the young boy who appeared to have been decapitated. 'He shouldn't have been on that ride.'. The corporation behind the Verruckt water slide in Kansas City and a former operations director who is being charged with manslaughter for the death of a 10-year-old boy did not have any proper . The Red Cross offers tips specifically for water parks. The safety of our guests is a priority, so in addition to the safety and what happened on the ride, our staff are affected. Love Island fans' horror as axed Olivia handed power to destroy TWO other stars, Frogmore eviction shows King's drawn a line with Harry, Strictly star bags life-changing EastEnders role as part of new family, Baby's body found after huge search as cops quiz Constance Marten & lover, News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. Riders must be at least 54-inches tall, and while previously the park had instituted an age minimum of 14 years, they've since removed it, saying the height requirement is sufficient. Even with the slide finally down, a community that once looked to Schlitterbahn as a summer refuge remains shaken and searching for answers of what went wrong. Why would you ever do that?. ], What would usually take three to six months in design calculations was completed a little more than five weeks after Verrckt was first conceived. 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