They both suffered minor cuts and scrapes on their face in the incident. Caleb Schwab Death: Source Reveals Horrific Details of Boy's Water Slide Accident By Associated Press Nationwide PUBLISHED 4:32 PM ET Aug. 10, 2016 KANSAS CITY, Kan. A 10-year-old boy was decapitated as he rode a 168-foot tall waterslide at a water park in Kansas, a person familiar with the investigation said Wednesday. "The death of [Caleb Schwab] appeared at first to be an isolated and unforeseeable incident until whistleblowers from within Schlitterbahn's own ranks came forward and revealed that Schlitterbahn officials had . Mum Michelle told the show about her eldest son's screams of terror after the fatal accident. Sensing opportunity, the Henrys opened a Schlitterbahn in South Padre Island, in 2001. Theres a whole bunch of factors that crept in on this one that we just didnt know about., Whenever he did interviews for the TV show, Jeff seemed obsessed with Verrckt, as if it were his white whale. Designers of the waterslide had so many problems they had to delay the grand opening. Riders must be at least 54 inches tall and the group cannot weigh more than a combined total of 400 to 550 pounds, according to the parks website. Caleb Thomas Schwab, aged 10, died in a freak incident when he fell from the 168-foot-tall Verruckt ride at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City. Caleb Schwab, 10, died in front of his family while riding a 168ft-high water slide in Kansas at Schlitterbahn Water Park. Date: Today, 02:00:07 AM EDT. (Most amazing ride Ive ever ridden. Like dropping out of the sky. Terrifying and horrible and terrific.) By the time young Caleb climbed Verrckts stairs, some 100,000 adrenaline junkies, a few of whom had flown in from across the world, had ridden Verrckt, and Jeff was planning to build a second version of the slide at the Schlitterbahn in Galveston. In five other incidents, riders claimed their rafts went airborne over the crest of the second hill and that they suffered head, neck, and back injuries when their rafts slammed back down onto the chute. Caleb and his father, Scott Schwab, were at the park for a special day for state lawmakers. (And he did get good news in July, when prosecutors agreed to let the company tear down Verrckt this fall.) He was found dead at the . He posted a $500,000 bond and surrendered his passport. When I returned the call several hours later, just after 7 a.m., he picked up on the first ring. For nearly a decade, Jeff and Schooley had been working on what they called a cannon nozzle: a highly pressurized water nozzle, much more advanced than the ones used in the Dragon Blaster and Master Blaster, that would propel riders up higher hills. Despite all his success, Jeff remained, at heart, a river rat. They asked Jeff if he had any projects in the works. That boat looked like it flew., He and Schooley added an extra five feet of height to the second hill to slow riders down and decreased the angle of its descent. In 2016, what was supposed to be a fun day out for a family became an utter tragedy when 10-year-old Caleb Schwab was . A detective interviewed 29-year-old Tyler Miles, who had been working at the park since 2013 and had advanced from construction worker to lifeguard to director of operations, responsible for all aspects of the parks day-to-day ride operations. Suddenly, it was hurtling downward: it must have felt to Caleb as if hed fallen off a skyscraper. In five of the incidents, riders claimed they were injured while their rafts were still in the chute. It is a seriously dangerous piece of equipment today because there are things that we dont know about it, he said at one point. To slow the rafts velocity, Jeff and Schooley lessened the angle at the bottom of the initial drop. I want to be the first at the bar to buy a drink, and I want to be the first to meet a pretty girl, and I want to be the first at everything. He devised a complicated artificial river system that moved tubers from one major slide to the next so they would rarely need to leave the water to stand in line. He gave river tours, and he operated a petting zoo. Court documents stated that a team of experts who inspected the slide after Caleb's death found physical evidence that indicated that other rafts had gone airborne and collided with the overhead hoops and netting before the fatality". The moment they reached the bottom, they would shoot up a 55-foot-tall inclinethe equivalent of a five-story buildingbefore racing down one last steep slope, finally coming to a stop in a long, water-filled runout. KANSAS CITY, Kan. As more information comes out about what happened to cause 10-year-old Caleb Schwab's tragic death, the concern over amusement park safety grows. It was a gloriously sunny afternoon, the kind tailor-made for Jeffs innocent old vision of summer fun. No comment, Jeff said. They then headed to Kansas City to build the 168-foot, 7-inch Verrckt. Once again, Jeff and his siblings had no public comment, though Prosapio released another statement that said that Schlitterbahn was shocked by the indictments. Caleb Thomas Schwab, the son of Kansas state Rep. Scott Schwab, was killed Sunday while riding "Verruckt" at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City. [Schlitterbahn managers] would ask lifeguards who would want to volunteer, and no one would put their hands up . Caleb was killed when his raft became airborne over the slide's 50-foot hump and collided with a metal bar supporting the safety net. The second was the Dragon Blaster, a watery version of a roller coaster (a water coaster, Jeff called it), which used high-pressure jets of water to push tubers up and around chutes instead of just sending them straight downhill. What happened. There was no age restrictiononly the height requirementso kids joined the line. They believed it was a valuable piece of evidence that should not be touched. Thats what I do.. And Verrckt, a ride that lasted only eighteen seconds, was considered to be his crowning achievement. (By this time, Bob had handed off the company to his three children, giving each of them a third of the voting shares.) Then, on August 7, 2016, Caleb Schwab and his family arrived at the park. Caleb Schwab, the son of a Kansas state . It details the possibilities of what could potentially happen on the ride known as the Verruckt a German word meaning insane or crazy. Schlitterbahn initially seemed to be policing itself just fine. They wanted me to create suspense and danger, to make Verrckt look really scary to add drama to the show, he said. You could be in his presence for thirty minutes and leave disliking him immensely, a water park consultant who worked with him told me. A nightmare beyond comprehension. Tests were showing that the rafts were going too fast and the g-forces were so powerful that passengers might pass out. Schwab boarded the raft with two women who were not related to him. What are those large pyramids next to the Skyway? 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Soon, reporters from an array of media outlets, This 1981 Photo Essay Captured Why Being an Aggie Is Not at All Funny, The Legend of Old Rip Was Pretty Unbelievable, How Florence ButtNot Her SonLaunched the H-E-B Empire. In October 2012, Jeff was at an amusement park industry trade show with his chief collaborator, John Schooley, a soft-spoken, silver-haired former yacht builder who had constructed slides at water parks in Asia before coming to New Braunfels to work for Jeff in 1998. Questions remain over how exactly Caleb died, including whether the ride or safety equipment as well as the Velcro straps and belt holding him into the raft malfunctioned. his wife, Billye, that he was tired of city life. He always thought he was right., Yet Jeff made no apologies. The speed slide its name means "insane" in German and it is certified as. Galveston's Schlitterbahn does not have the slide Schwab was killed on,. He never got a conventional education beyond high school and never formally studied physics or engineering. But prosecutors for the Kansas attorney generals office persuaded a judge to lock down the ride. You don't want to go any further'.". He would later attend the University of Texas and major in accounting. She was known to be indulged in many petty crimes such as auto theft. At the Disney California Adventure Food and Wine Festival, you will find a palate-dazzling smorgasbord of cuisines and cocktails in which to indulge. Three riders inside a rubber raft would plummet down a nearly vertical seventeen-story drop at speeds reaching up to 68 miles per hour. (A single rider, lying on his back, shot straight down the slide, slowed during the long water brake, and finally came to a stop in a runout pool.) That boat looked like it flew.. The hoop sliced into his neck, and he was instantly decapitated. The camp sat next to the spring-fed Comal River, which gently meanders two and a half miles through New Braunfels before merging with the Guadalupe River. One is a line from John 3:16. We walked past the home where Bob, Billye, and the Henry kids lived five decades ago (its now rented out to Schlitterbahn visitors). 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From left: Jeff Henry with his father, Bob, mother, Billye, and siblings, Jana and Gary. Before Jeffs arraignment, his 39-year-old daughter, Amber, from his first marriage, raced to a Walmart and purchased a suit for her father to wear. A Kansas judge dropped charges Friday against the owners of the world's tallest waterslide after a child was decapitated on it, local media reported.. Caleb Schwab was just 10 years old when he was killed while riding the 168-foot-tall "Verrckt" slide in Kansas City's Schlitterbahn water park in 2016.. Caleb, the son of Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, was decapitated after his raft . Im a water showman. In 1989, at a water park in Brazil, he created a 135-foot-high slide, called Insano, that at the time was the worlds tallest. If I really believed I was responsible for the death of that little boy, Id kill myself right now, he said. The Verruckt is the largest of its kind in the world. The slide is 168-feet tall and has 264. (The same netting system had been placed on Schlitterbahns Master Blaster rides.) alized the time had come to do it, he told me later. But at least one of the men was clearly nervous. . This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. Death sentence in Kansas water slide case thrown out over boy's death As Caleb Schwab, 10, rode down the Verruckt waterslide in 2016, he was decapitated when the raft he was in went airborne. The slide has been closed since Caleb's death on Aug. 7, 2016. Police have revealed that 10-year-old Caleb Schwab - who was involved in a fatal accident at Schlitterbahn Water Park in Kansas City on Sunday - died of a "neck injury," PEOPLE confirms.. An engineering firm hired to inspect the ride right before its opening also issued a damning report that said it "guaranteed that rafts would occasionally go airborne in a manner that could severely injure or kill the occupants.. Im telling you, the ride that was built by John Schooley and Jeff Henry is not the same ride that that boy was on the day he died.. Many of us, and our children and grandchildren, have ridden the ride with complete confidence as to its safety . As her friends recalled Carolyn looked elder than her age. When the case goes to trial, which isnt likely to happen for at least another year, Jeffs and Schooleys attorneys might use that very argument: that the employees who operated Verrckt made mistakes, such as ignoring maintenance problems, and that Henry and Schooley knew nothing about it. Children frolicked in watery playgrounds, teenagers lined up to ride the Boogie Bahn and the water coasters, and parents floated on the artificial rivers. He told one reporter that Verrckt was an erotic piece of art and would go down in history as the most terrifying ride ever built in a water park. He told another reporter that he had conceived of Verrckt because he could no longer tolerate the thought of the worlds tallest slide being in Brazil. The Wyandotte County coroners office conducted an autopsy on Monday but it is unclear whether they will publicly release the results. Later, some gruesome details were revealed about the boy's death. An investigator spoke to a seventeen-year-old lifeguard who said that Miles had ordered him to write a report that downplayed the severity of the Groves incident. Have you been aware of any complaints regarding Verrckt the ride in the last season? the detective asked. You read it quietly and are reminded again that Caleb Schwab should still be here. I watched some other kids at a picnic table happily downing ice cream. That day, Schlitterbahn was offering free admission to Kansas elected officials and their families, along with a buffet lunch, and the Schwabs, who lived in the town of Olathe, southwest of Kansas City, were thrilled. Every year, an estimated two million visitors go to the parks to plunge down slides, zoom through twisting tube chutes, and float and swim in man-made rivers and enormous pools. Im not quite sure yet, he replied. Caleb Schwab was one of three passengers in the raft on the Verruckt ride at the Kansas city water park when he died. (After he had created the 135-foot Insano, a Brazilian company built a body slide that was just under 164 feet.) Verruckt is one of the water parks main attractions. It was reported that the boy died on the world's tallest water slide in Kansas. Nor does the law require an inspector to evaluate the safety of such factors as the rides speed or the geometric angle of its slide path. An employee pushed a button, and the raft would take off. A light breeze rattled the leaves. I didnt hear anyone mention the indictments in Kansas City. Get the Android Weather app from Google Play, Man hospitalized after shooting in Holiday, Florida Strawberry Festival kicks off this week, Vanessa Bryant receives nearly $29 million settlement, DeSantis-picked trustees vote to eliminate diversity, Gov. But nobody bothered to tell me something was wrong with it., As for the outside engineering firms finding that a raft with three passengers weighing between 400 and 550 pounds could go airborne, Jeff said he thought it relied on outdated information. Gary and Jana agreed that Jeff should proceed with Verrckt. ET. No one seemed to know, not even Jeff. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission only has jurisdiction over traveling amusement parks, like pop-up carnivals. I think about all the great customers who choose to come to a Schlitterbahn to spend their family vacations. I don't even hardly remember driving home.". http://wx.wfla.com/oembed/email/noon_signup.html. Senator's son, 10, was 'decapitated when he was thrown through raft harness and into safety net before plunging 50ft down the world's tallest waterslide'. Kelsey Friedrichsen was visiting the park . But one of his lawyers acknowledged that Jeff didnt have such training. The deal was announced in 2005, but because of a drawn-out construction process, as well as the economic downturn of 2008, the venture had to be scaled back significantly, with no hotels, no homes, and little retail. Jeff, Schooley, and Schlitterbahns New Braunfelsbased construction company, Henry & Sons Construction, were charged with aggravated battery, aggravated child endangerment, and second-degree murder, a much more significant charge than manslaughter that could result in sentences for Jeff and Schooley ranging from 9 to 41 years in prison, along with a $300,000 maximum fine per man. Michelle continued: "There was a gentleman who wouldn't allow me to come close enough to see what was going on and kept saying: 'No, trust me. A humid breeze presses down on the dead summer grass. When he wasnt working on Schlitterbahn rides, Jeff exported his inventions around the world. Families poured through the gates. The two sisters who had ridden behind Caleb, both of whom suffered facial injuries, also received a settlement, of an undisclosed amount. Billye ran the cafe, and Gary, Jeff, and Jana did odd jobs: sweeping out the cabins, mowing the grass, laying brick, shingling, and grouting. The witness, Esteban Castaneda, said he heard booms before seeing the boy wash down the slide after the raft. The plans would eventually call for hotels, rental cabins, hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail outlets, and a residential area surrounding the park. Some Bahnophiles spend every summer weekend, or even entire vacations, at a Schlitterbahn. 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