The Tragedy Of The World's Tallest Waterslide: The History of Schlitterbahn
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- čas přidán 29. 09. 2023
- 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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Expedition Oakwood!
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
jfc
Plenty more life guards out there! Best to start scrubbing!
I remember that didn’t they not want to report it to osha
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!
Yoh!! 😮
"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.
Don't even need an engineering degree to figure that out. I knew that when I was 10
If this guy wasn't stopped I bet he would have tried to put a loop in one. Smh
0
Adventure park, that you?
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."
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
@@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
I remember seeing this. A 10 year old decapitated in front of others and what was supposed to be harmless fun. Horrific. Apparently there was blood all the way down the slide. RIP Caleb. Your loss of life may have saved many more.
Yep the blood was visible from the highway for years
@@eliosborne17 fr???
@@ZheyaHawkyup.
@@ZheyaHawk fr??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
@@rosieo5481there's no way it wouldn't have been washed away instantly by the jets
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.
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.
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.
The Dunning/Kruger effect at its finest.
The poorly educated think they're the smartest people in the world.
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
Yes but think of the short term gains/savings. -them probably
the fact that this guy ended up getting more punished for using drugs than killing a child is insane
But unsurprising...it's the USA...
Everyone’s anger, justified or not, doesn’t dictate the results in a court of law though. People should also be angry that the state had essentially no oversight or laws on the books that would protect the public and protect that kid when riding amusement park rides like that. Trying to charge the park owner’s with murder and solely focusing all anger on those individuals is just as absurd. Unfortunately, this case is similar to a lot of workspace law in that much of safety code is written in blood.
Why did lawmakers in the state decide that there shouldn’t be any regulations on the amusement park industry in terms of rides and that letting those same parks police themselves was sufficient?
@@extragoogleaccount6061 the park knew of multiple injuries before the death happened so yeah they should have been charged hard for murder
@@Pj287. find a roller coaster, besides ones for kids, that do not have injuries reported on them as well. Six Flags Fiesta Texas has the Rattler (funny thing about Fiesta Texas it was originally built and run by the insurance company USAA and one of their subsidiaries) and similarly that ride had to be toned down multiple times due to injuries that were occuring. A death even occured at the similar Texas Giant roller coaster with a guest falling out of their seat in 2013. While each death is tragic and the Schlitterbahn family likely should have done more to ensure the ride was safe for everyone they let on, technically they were following the regulations and guidlines at the time.
Or trying to purchase sex from human traffickers
I happened to be in New Braunfels in 1979 that first weekend that Schlitterbahn opened. I didn’t know anything about the park, but I spent a day there. It was a fun day. I was 19. Years later, my daughters and I visited the then expanded park frequently. The slides became more aggressive and my middle daughter and I were hurt on one of them when our heads hit the top cover. The slides were too steep and fast. I never took my daughters back. The park wasn’t fun anymore. I was heartbroken to hear about the ten year old boy’s death and the other riders’ injuries. Jeff lied and lied some more. Greed.
Cool story bro.
@@StuartFerguson55you seem like a miserable person to be around
@@StuartFerguson55 you think this was a lie? get out of the comment section.
Jeff: "No model for this exists"
RollerCoaster Tycoon 2: "Am I a f****n' joke to you?!"
That's SO true, man! Those heights are insane
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.
I miss that game
Imagine killing a 10 year old and destroying your family's business because basic engineering was just too much of a hassle for you.
Right?! You would think that if the person responsible doesn’t know anything about engineering they would hire some good engineers given the potential liability.
@@rommy143- that’s what Walt did.
Because I'm sure that's what they did when he woke up that morning was making sure the kids would die and businesses would fail that was his goal.
@@IzzyTheEditor......thats? thats not what theyre saying...? honey idk how old u are, but i do know ur too old to have the reading comprehension of a 5yo
killing a 10yo in the most violent way possible, in front of the little boys brother no less
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
The father of a victim was a politician who consistently voted against regulations.
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.
@teijaflink2226 yes, he spearheaded the new law.
@@andreajohnson1212 shocking he tured straight round and started voting for safety. 🤔
@loosilu He also cashed in on $20M rather than the $300K liability damages limit law that he voted for in his home state.
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.
Was it fun?
@@EriktionEBWDawg…
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.
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 😂
@@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.
@@alexlents4689 no the New Braunfels one was already good before all this
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
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.
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.
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.
Sad, but my thought exactly!@@kavinh10
Probably the reason he was let on the ride as well. He did not meet age limit and most likely weight limit either
Republicans hate regulations so corporations get away with murder but who cares. Right? They are working on our behalf 😏
And noone went to jail.. Outrageous.
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":
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.
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!
Family" dogs kill 50 people per year in the US.
Humans are insane.
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.
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
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.
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?
Being a dad of 3 kids, I can't imagine the pain felt by that poor boy's family.
I bet 20 mil made it worth 😅
@@AmarFox6Not even close you utter bell end.
What really bothers me is that this all could've been avoided if they didnt have an "airtime hill" on a slide.
Ikr? The dude was hellbent on building a rollercoaster slide.
@@Sir1188 Yup. It'd work on a coaster because of the safety mechanisms like brackets that fold under the lip of the rail, holding the car down so it doesn't go flying off the track. That ain't gonna work on a slide... *_facepalm_*
Like, yeah. They could have still gotten the record for tallest slide, and saved millions in R&D.
But they were determined to get a f&*k off large airtime hill on a slide.
10000000000000% THIS
"Airtime Hill" lowkey sounds like the name of a Sonic the Hedgehog level.....
What is that exactly???
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.
100%
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.
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
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.
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.
This guy builds waterslides like how I build stuff in Minecraft, just keep making and re-making it until it’s good enough.
Only time in my life I thought I was going to die was at one of their Texas water parks. I was maybe 8-9, in a race track style wave pool, that had one big area to pull in water for the waves followed by a massive jet area to create them. I was pulled by the suction to the bottom of the pool and my feet were stuck the vents that were sucking in water. I was just spinning in circles. Even as a kid it’s crystal clear now. I thought after what felt like 20-30 seconds “whelp this is it, I’m done”.
Had it not been for a heavy set Hispanic man grabbing my hand and pulling me away from the suction, I’m certain I would have died. To this day I wish I could thank him but have no information other than the glimpse of him I had the moment of breaking the surface.
Thinking back what really bothers me is that I remember this specific part of the circular pool had a handful of life guards watching the swimmers. I don’t think any of them noticed. Was just a random good Samaritan that noticed me and acted.
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.
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
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.
@@thicccarteronxbox9930 What's odd is when I came off the slide, I thought to myself how dangerous it felt? It was rough.
@@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.
@@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
*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.
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.
It was an "internal decapitation" which means his head was not detached from his body, but his spine was severed when his neck snapped...
wow this is a lot more tragic than they were reporting back then.
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.
@@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.
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
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.
Yikes. I hope you reported it. Scary
33:07 Not following industry standards and "redefining standards" reminded me of the Oceangate debacle.
Agreed
I can assure you the Oceangate Titan was safe and effective.
@@Mogamishuthat seems to redefine "safe", as for effective: sure, only to what end?
@@Pengochaneffective in getting down there, not as effective in *staying* down there lol
@@triangulum_moriI mean, technically it was pretty effective at staying down there once...
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.
Personally, I see the sub implosion as a win.
Nothing better than less 1-percenters. The closer to zero it gets, the better.
Yep. Don't fuck around with physics, is the moral of the story 👍
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✨.
@@FreeValenI heard a phrase once, "safety guidelines are written in blood" and thats.. pretty fitting.
Yep. And both pushed ahead without adequate testing.
I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a more well-researched video on CZcams. Down to the small detail about how they opened their South Padre Island location to compete with Edinburg’s struggling Super Splash park (which happened to close a few years after). Great job!
There is like zero information on the accident itself, from the weight of the riders to the seating position. If I remember right, it was 2 98lb females and a 50lb boy, with the boy in front, creating the perfect recipe for lift off.
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.
*_"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."_* - Richard Feynman
Excellent …he was referring to the challenger disaster
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.
I think I watched that clip!!!!
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.
@@humanbeing2420that's not even remotely true. action park was in New Jersey of all places
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.
That poor wee child an avoidable tragedy, your heart just breaks for the family. Safety should always be put first.
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
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.
Wary is the word I believe your looking for.
@@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.
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.
Your story really paints the reality and random nature of such disasters. This thing should never have been allowed to be built.
How did your friends and family react to it?
@@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.
@@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!
@@1ManNamedDanThe random nature of the fact it could’ve been her or any of the boys she was with.
Very sad story. I will keep all of the people who were injured on this ride and their families in my daily prayers 🙏
This tragedy has always been in my thoughts. Being born and raised in Niagara Falls Ontario, where we had one of the first water parks, this story and tragedy always stuck with me. The fact that they first said there would be an age restriction of 16, but then basically crossed that out and said 14 and then the boy that was tragically killed was 10 is outrageous, for so many reasons! Age shouldn’t really have anything to do with it, it should definitely be on your height and weight when it comes to rides…… along with many many other safety factors, . But there were so many things wrong with this ride, these “designers”, “these engineers”, if you want to call them that, were extremely negligent. I hope that Caleb is flying high in a place that is actually fun, miraculous and most importantly where he can never get hurt… for all of eternity.. ❤🙏🏼
I don't understand how it's even cost effective to build, tear down, rebuild, and delay openings. It would have been cheaper and obviously safer to have professional consultants throughout the process.
"Ya", Sure they could be paid off. Money fixes everything.
Its ego effective
cost effective because Jeff saved on paying an external company to do so.
But this probably wasn't mainly about costs, it was about making good on missing deadline goals... and ego
Yeah but then those professionals would have said the entire slide was designed unsafe..
@@mystickyonyourface which was true
"Rafts were launching into the air"
Me: Oh no...
"Nets were added to the slide"
Me: *Oh no...*
You should add: "Nets were added too low to the slide." That's even worse and factual.
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
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??
I saw/liked your Expedition Extinct OpryLand video before watching this video (my heart goes out to Caleb’s family-the poor boy 🥺)-let’s just say y’all’ve got yourselves a new subscriber!
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.
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 ❤
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.
They were so obsessed with having the worlds tallest slide that they ignored all the laws of physics.
Yup!
And their obsession got someone killed and the "Justice System" was a joke for for patting him back on the shoulder.
And why didn’t it have to be inspected and proven safe before it could open
They were so obsessed with whether they could. They didn't stop to think whether they should.
@@ruthanneluvsvacuuming6653 It wasn't required by law
The moment in RCT when you build the ride, but don't test it before opening
I was tempted to put a clip of that in
Clearly never built Dinghy Slides in RCT very known to fly off 😂
We did a computer simulation of building coasters in physics class.... unfortunately my version came off the tracks from being too fast
sounds like the loop at action park that got built and not tested properly before use.
Fiasco Forest's folly
The amount of time and research you put into this video is truly amazing. Very well done!
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.
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.
@@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.
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.
Exactly - I don't follow any rules because we are making new rules kind of thing.
I REMEMBERED FOR IT, EXACTLY IN THAT MOMENT.
Dude, that's awesome, I could not imagine, someone other will have same thinking processes.
Yes. But at least Titan only mashed flat a bunch of ultrarich hubris enthusiasts...including the "Jeff Henry" of that story himself...
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
@@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.
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!
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.
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?)
@@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.
@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.
@@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.
I remember seeing a special on the construction of this slide on Travel Channel years ago. And even in testing, the raft flew into the air and they did almost nothing to fix it. Even as a kid I was perplexed. Then years later I heard this on the news and all the memories came back. The engineering negligence on display was absolutely appalling.
Over the years I think I can say that I have saw a several videos on that topic. IMO yours is one of the most detailed so far.
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.
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.
"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.
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
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.
im in kck too. people stil regularly visit his grave, myself included.
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.
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.
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?
@@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.
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 !
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! 🤔🤔🤔🤔🇩🇪🇨🇭🇺🇸💚💙💚💙💚🌊🌊
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. ❤
Amazing video! This is my first experience with your channel. I was amazed at the detail and depth of your research. You got a new sub from me!
Thank you so much!
Should have left the air time hill out. That was the dangerous part. Would have still been a record breaker without it
I will never get over the discount prostitute for 10 day passes. This guy really messed up his entire family’s futures.
I thought prostitute was some kinda typo... I've since finished the video
Probably not, actually. Just put a bit of a dent in the net worth...
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.
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.
Merci beaucoup pour l'histoire de tragedy of the world tallest water slide❤❤❤❤❤❤😊❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Millions of blessings,
Esther St Juste
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.
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.
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.
@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.
ill bet politicians were paid off to let safety standards become non-existant
My heart sinks every time I see that picture of Caleb. I still think about his older brother who witnessed the aftermath.
IKR Everything just didn't add up.
I am so glad that I came across your channel! You have a new subscriber!
💛💛💛💛💛💛💛
That was extremely interesting. Thank-you.
I’ll never understand why they thought it was a good idea to put a *hill* on a water slide with no upstop system
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.
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.
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...
I think their upstop system was the netting. It did its job.
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.
Yeah!
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!
@@ExpeditionThemePark That was excellent and tasteful. Thank you. It was hard driving by that slide before they tore it down. So sad.
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.
@@Kurt1969🫣🫣🫣
I lived in KC from 2006-09 and drove past the construction for this park all the time. I was pretty bummed that it hadn't opened before I moved. I remember the Schlitterbahn Sucks signs and all the delays. So many warning signs and red flags leading up to this death. It's sad to see
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
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.
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.
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.
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! 🤔🤔🇩🇪🇨🇭🇺🇸💙🌊💙🌊💙🌊💙🌊💙🌊💙🌊
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.
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.
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”.
Thanks for watching
Land of the free!
I just wanted to say this id the most thorough video I’ve ever seen on this topic. It really seems the creators knew the ride was dangerous and just….didn’t care. So sad that Caleb had to be the victim of that on a day when he was just supposed to be having fun.
I'm a New Braunfels Native! It's cool seeing some town history told here!
We would get season passes each summer and go often. I've only gone once since the incident, and it's a whole lot different now. When I didn't have season passes, it was only like $25 to get in so it wasn't hard to go if a friend wanted to. Last time I went it was over $60 just to get in.
New Braunfels actually has two parks (technically three, with two on one property). In 1991 they started building Surfenburg and Blastenhoff. You can go between there and the original park via a free shuttle service if you have a wristband to get inside the park. The South Padre one would their fourth park, officially.
Caleb Schwab hit the overhead hoop so hard he was decapitated. There was a news clip soon after the accident that showed the bloodstained slide - that was legitimately disturbing to see.
How in the hell, I mean how does one gets decapitated, how can they go so fast?
@@XxXnonameAsDXxXthe weight of the tube. Doesn’t matter how fast they were going.
😢😔💔
@XxXnonameAsDXxX
He wasnt decapitated. He suffered "internal decapitation" which is basically a medical term for a severe neck break where the skull/head seperates completely from the vertebrae but is still attached to the body. Its actually survivable in about 30% of cases if the damage to blood vessels and spinal cord isnt too severe and treatment is given right away. But the media saw the word "decapitation" in the medical records and ran with it. But basically, he broke his neck badly at the base of the skull. Does it make it any less awful, no.
But, as a medical professional it bothers me that the media says he was "decapitated" to make it more sensational and gruesome, this is a young boys life we are talking about.
@@childofcascadiathanks for cleaning that up! Your comment would be good not just under a reply so other read it
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.
Your heart is in the right place.
😊
We lived within 30 minutes of this place and I worked just 5 minutes away, near the Nascar track. My wife asked me multiple times if I was interested but I always told her no. I didn't think there was any way it could be safe, knowing how lax safety can be in the midwest. This is one of those cases where I wish I was wrong and people didn't have to die, but I am glad I didn't agree to give it a go lol.
Man, seeing the history of Schlitterbahn is kind of cool. New Braunfels is my hometown. I grew up not even 2 blocks from the park. My family still lives there, having refused to sell their house through the years. I have many great memories of Schlitterbahn, Prince Solms Tube Chute (I worked there as a tube boy), Hinman Island, the Spring Fed Pool, and just tubing down the Comal. I’m a river rat!
Oh boy, ETP just uploaded, wonder what today's topic is. *Sees Verruckt on the thumbnail*....... Oh no
It’s time
Galveston, Tx here!!!! Place definitely needed fix up!! You would get paint pieces on your skin on the slides and snakes in the water pit area.
I survived the Verrukt. This is also what shirts in the gift shop said. It seemed safe as a younger kid.
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.
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.
Born and raised KC ....never visited there and always had a bad vibe seeing it from the legends
I remember hearing about this when it happened. Everyone was talking about it. I can't imagine the family
I love falling asleep with a CZcams video playing and waking up to some random shit like this,
like no sir go on…. What about them big water slides??
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.
His father routinely voted against regulation of businesses.
Reap what is sown.
@@chellesama8256🙄
@@chellesama8256 That doesn't really say much dude, you're grasping at karmatic straws for that one.
@@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.
@@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.
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.
@@allancouceiro9255 I’m not. I was right about it.
it's so much worse when you look up the details of Caleb's death. Such willful negligence and hubris that they didn't take any precautions that they might be even slightly wrong.
I remember seeing that episode of Extreme Waterparks. The rides flying off was a consistent problem from the very beginning of full scale tests. I remember being so utterly confused as to why they wanted a hill at the end
'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 😅
Kansas has a huge German immigrant population, not modern mind you but from the wild west days. German Mennonites I believe was the majority.
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).
@@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.
@@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 🙈
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 🤣
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!
They were rich, arrogant, and didn't give a crap...
@@stevetournay6103 And one of the 'designers' had a history of being a meth addict
That is basically what happened the little boy flew up and hit his head on one of the steel netholders and he.was decapitated. 😢
A lot of their rides had that netting.
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.
Very good documentary
25:09 I can relate, around 2005 I had played a PC game about designing water slides that I had the exact same issue since I was used to playing roller coaster tycoon. Seeing my guests going flying was disheartening
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.
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.
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.
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.
@@trishoconnor2169 in my opinion, it should have been a mistrial and they should have been retried.
@@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.
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.
Oh absolutely. The rest of the park just looked so cheap and half baked. The service at the concession stand was abysmal too.
i worked at schlitterbahn new braunfels when this happened when i was only 15, and remember seeing this on the news and not being surprised in the slightest. the stories other lifeguards had that they legally weren't allowed to share publicly were horrific---limbs being cut off, lifeguards being killed by faulty machinery, lifeguards constantly suffering from hypothermia and heat stroke, etc. the original owners selling most of the parks was honestly for the best considering the new company actually takes care of the employees, pays them More than minimum wage, and has closed the areas that were dangerous.
I went there in 2010 from KC and it was alright. The wave river was the best part but the wave mechanism was pretty scary. It was open up and felt like I could just be sucked in. Guess I'm happy this slide was open yet though.
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.
They didnt expect the person to be beheaded…
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.
I get it.
I would have appreciated if he wouldn't have used the sensation gasping intro that he did.
@@Delibro - Can't please everyone.
@@smileychess yes you can, just leave the sensation gasping intro, so easy.
@@Delibro And then someone else would complain about something else. If it bugs you, watch something else.
Nice to know that the idea of getting on a TV show was worth a child's life.
i grew up in kansas city, i remember when this happened. never knew the kid or his family, but the whole city was devastated for them. i remember that.
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.
I was a lifeguard at the New Braunfels location around when this happened. It was absolutely horrific to hear about.
I went to Schlitterbahn and rode the Verrukt on Saturday August 6th 2016. Won 3 tickets from my Church to go earlier in the summer (Life Mission Church) which Caleb Schwab ALSO attended. Gives me a cold feeling everytime I think of that.
This is terrifying. I remember being a kid at a waterpark being on the biggest slide the park had. I remember feeling I got airborne at one point. It wasn't a raft/tube ride it was just lay down and cross your arms. Hard to tell if I was just scared and imagining things, or if it really happened as water was continually splashing me in the face so didn't have my eyes open at that moment.
I also remember being a kid and wanting to go to Schlitterbahn so bad to try big more intricate water rides. Guess it's a good thing that I never went since, although improbable, it could've been me