Harrowing documentary explores ‘world’s tallest waterslide’ that decapitated a child

A haunting documentary explored the “world’s tallest waterslide” that tragically decapitated a young boy. Based in the Schlitterbahn Water Park in Kansas City, the Verrückt – which means “insane” in German was the tallest waterslide in the world standing at nearly a staggering 169 feet tall.

The record-breaking ride, which measured taller than Niagara Falls, allowed parkgoers to travel at a staggering 70 miles per hour, and fall down the vertical 17-story chute.

However, the attraction ended in tragedy when a 10-year-old boy named Caleb Schwab was involved in a horrific incident that saw him killed at the water park on August 7, 2016.

The Schwab family, best known for their involvement in the Kansas House of Representatives as part of the Republican party, were visiting the park on Elected Officials Day under free admission courtesy of the park.

Caleb and his 12-year-old brother were eager to be going and when the duo arrived, they went to the ride. The two brothers were split from each other, with Nathan taking the plunge first and then Caleb and his two sisters following behind.

After a thorough investigation, it was disclosed that the raft Caleb was on went “airborne,” causing the young boy to hit the netting above the slide. The result of the collision decapitated the young boy, which ended his life instantly.

His body was floating at the bottom of the slide in the pool when staff ran over to attend to him. The employees immediately called emergency services and cordoned off the area to avoid other park-goers from seeing the horrific scene.

At the time, the park released a statement addressing the incident, writing: “In our 50 years of providing an environment for families and friends to gather, we’ve never experienced this kind of devastating event. The safety of our staff and our guests is our top priority,” per ABC News.

“We are parents and grandparents ourselves, and many of us had ridden Verruckt with our own children and grandchildren over the years it operated,” they continued. “At Schlitterbahn, we take safety very seriously. We support effective guidelines that increase guest and staff safety.”

Schlitterbahn added that safety has “always has been our top priority” and that they will “continue to review our safety procedures”.

In a documentary uploaded to YouTube back in 2019 – titled: The World’s Tallest Water Slide Was a Terrible, Tragic Idea – The Atlantic set out to explore just what went wrong to cause such a shocking, fatal event.

The short film was under 10 minutes long and explained that the devastating ordeal happened due to “gross negligence, lax state regulations, and the consequences of hubris,” according to the publication.

It was directed by Missouri filmmaker Nathan Truesdell who heard about the incident on the news. At first, he thought that it was a “freak accident” but then “once I took a closer look, I started to realize how complicated this story really was, and how this could have happened to anyone who went down that slide”.

“There wasn’t a lot of science or ride engineering involved in the testing and design,” he said. “They were sending sandbags down and basically hoping that they didn’t fly off of the slide. The netting that ultimately ended up killing the child was added to prevent the rafts from flying off of the slide completely.”

The deathly ride first came about in 2012 when Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeff Henry teamed up with senior designer John Schooley to construct the Verrückt in hopes to secure a Guinness World Record.

Due to Caleb’s untimely death, a grand jury filed charges of second-degree murder against the pair but, a judge dismissed the charges.

After a lengthy legal battle, the child’s family was awarded nearly $20 million in settlements from the companies involved as per court documents.

As reported by Kansas City Star, SVV 1 and KC Water Park would pay out $14 million, while two other parties would be contributing undisclosed amounts to the family in order to settle the lawsuit filed against them.

While the company names and amounts initially remained undisclosed, a motion was filed stating that the amounts paid by each defendant should be released to ensure that those responsible for Caleb’s death were held accountable for their actions.

Verrückt has remained closed since the accident, though the water park planned to re-open it.

Our thoughts continue to be with Caleb’s family and friends.

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