Saw today that a 12 year old child died while riding Veruckt at the KC Schillterbahn park.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article94254507.html
Just heard the same.
Update: The child was 10-year-old Caleb Schwab, the son of Kansas Rep. Scott Schwab.
I had weird feelings about that ride ever since I saw the plans for it. The design never seemed logical to be safe. It had all kinds of issues with it before opening including rafts losing control over the hill. Redesign of the hill, rafts, adding netting..etc where all red flags. How on earth can you 'manage' an airtime hill on a water slide? I never rode it but apparently you got two face to face safety warnings before sliding and had to weigh-in twice (one before the stairs, and another on top of the tower) for safety measures. With those intense procedures and crazy variables (weight, raft conditions, slide conditions, safety constraints, weather/wind) of that size of ride.....It just felt like it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. Just felt like the company was so set on getting that 'worlds biggest' title and attention that comes from that.....that it overlooked long-term safety(IMO).
From what I'm reading/hearing....the boy was riding with two older woman. They were also seriously injured too but not life threatening. No one exactly knows the cause yet but it's appartenant that the boy was sitting in front and made contact with with the netting or support for the netting that covers the slide. Which we can then conclude that the raft lost control over the hill of the slide. I'm guessing official cause will not be released until legal stuff is completed:(
I've kept an eye on that parks reviews and development closely over the years......Being that I grew up near KCK and still visit often I was excited for that park and really wanted it to thrive. I've taken my family to WoF/OoF multiple times since that park has opened but for some reason I've never had any desire yet to try it out. The general feedback I've read both on-line and from friends is that it was way overpriced (not developed enough for the price) and the big slide was dangerous and not that fun. Most of my friends would recommend just going to OoF, Great Wolf Lodge, or a few of some local aquatic centers around KC that are popping up everywhere with their own lazy rivers and slide complexes.
I'm guessing (and hoping at this point) that the slide will be destroyed and Schlitterbahn will be fortunate if they save the water park from going under.
Of course my heart goes out to the parents, family, friends.....and the park workers.....it's surely a tragedy all the way around.
I always thought this slide was a stupid idea. There are a number of ways to accomplish this general style of ride, but they were completely impractical in how they did it. So many other things they could have spent their money on...
At the very least, I think they should remove the slide's airtime hill. You don't put an airtime hill on a water slide.
Quote from: Tmboote on August 08, 2016, 04:18:41 PM
At the very least, I think they should remove the slide's airtime hill. You don't put an airtime hill on a water slide.
Exactly....
I never understood if that hill was to help 'slow' the raft down or to add a thrill to the ride. Either way it is a stupid design for a free falling water slide. Plus.....the fact that they added a net over it.....doesn't that imply that they knew something like this could happen?
Hope the general public understand how crazy this slide was and it's not a good comparison to 99% of the other slides that are being used daily.
Armchair engineering is always fun, right?
Let's agree that if you have never ridden it, seen it in person, AND talked with the design team that you should not provide your "expert" opinions on the ride.
1. I never felt unsafe on the ride
2. There were guides the raft went in on the way down the 1st drop
3. The raft usually lost so much momentum that it very slowly goes over the 2nd hill
4. Every MasterBlaster on the chain (except MASSIV) have these nets
Personally I'm still trying to figure out how a 10yo got on a slide with a 14yo age minimum. He was obviously underweight and had no business being on the slide to begin with.
There was no age requirement, only height minimum.
I am thinking more now that incidents like this is an example for the reasoning behind why SDC removed the Watterboggan. Fear for this eventually happening. (which it really could have)
Quote from: Sungod on August 08, 2016, 08:19:01 PM
There was no age requirement, only height minimum.
Unless they just changed the requirements (they haven't) the age limit is 14yo. Granted the boy could have lied to get around it
They changed it (you're wrong, again) shortly after it opened. http://www.schlitterbahn.com/kansas-city/rides/all-new-verruckt
Quote from: Sungod on August 08, 2016, 09:17:04 PM
They changed it (you're wrong, again) shortly after it opened. http://www.schlitterbahn.com/kansas-city/rides/all-new-verruckt
It's still posted at the ride as the age minimum is 14 yo.
It's obvious you're a troll and/or a double handle so you're done.
It's also obvious to everyone that you're the most inaccurate, self-proclaimed "expert" on this site.
Quote from: Swoosh on August 08, 2016, 05:10:27 PM
Armchair engineering is always fun, right?
Let's agree that if you have never ridden it, seen it in person, AND talked with the design team that you should not provide your "expert" opinions on the ride.
1. I never felt unsafe on the ride
2. There were guides the raft went in on the way down the 1st drop
3. The raft usually lost so much momentum that it very slowly goes over the 2nd hill
4. Every MasterBlaster on the chain (except MASSIV) have these nets
Personally I'm still trying to figure out how a 10yo got on a slide with a 14yo age minimum. He was obviously underweight and had no business being on the slide to begin with.
I was curious what your thoughts about the incident was Swoosh....I know you have had 'relationship' with the park.
Yes....it's completely an monday morning quarterback type of post I made......I wouldn' t have posted about the slide if the incident didn't happen. Nor can I prove that I had that opinion (ride is too dangerous for me and my family) before the incident happened (but I did). As a general rule....water slides scare me 200x more than coasters that run on rails.
It's laughable to say that I can not have an informed opinion on the safety of the ride without actually have rode it.....let alone the idea that I can't post an opinion on a online forum because I don't 'know' the designers....you really sound ridiculous when you post from your highhorse swoosh.
The ride had a ton of coverage (including from swoosh's site) during it's setup and opening. There's plenty of opinions about the park and ride online, I do know people who have rode it, and I have physically seen it (jheeez). I'm not saying the park intentionally did anything wrong that would cause it.....riders are informed of the danger and their were still long lines for it.....I'm not mad anyone who likes the ride nor will I be leading any type of petition to close it if it opens back up (just my opinion that it needs to close). Part of living in a free country is the ability to discern risks and the freedom choose to take them.
Seems to be a debate about the age and if he should have rode it.....other questions has to be around if the restraints malfunctioned? he size cause the restraints to fail? Did he do something on purpose (stand up?), raft malfunction? Too many things that could have went wrong :(
Quote from: HumphreyHawk on August 08, 2016, 03:37:01 PM
I had weird feelings about that ride ever since I saw the plans for it. The design never seemed logical to be safe. It had all kinds of issues with it before opening including rafts losing control over the hill. Redesign of the hill, rafts, adding netting..etc where all red flags. How on earth can you 'manage' an airtime hill on a water slide? I never rode it but apparently you got two face to face safety warnings before sliding and had to weigh-in twice (one before the stairs, and another on top of the tower) for safety measures. With those intense procedures and crazy variables (weight, raft conditions, slide conditions, safety constraints, weather/wind) of that size of ride.....It just felt like it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. Just felt like the company was so set on getting that 'worlds biggest' title and attention that comes from that.....that it overlooked long-term safety(IMO).
From what I'm reading/hearing....the boy was riding with two older woman. They were also seriously injured too but not life threatening. No one exactly knows the cause yet but it's appartenant that the boy was sitting in front and made contact with with the netting or support for the netting that covers the slide. Which we can then conclude that the raft lost control over the hill of the slide. I'm guessing official cause will not be released until legal stuff is completed:(
I've kept an eye on that parks reviews and development closely over the years......Being that I grew up near KCK and still visit often I was excited for that park and really wanted it to thrive. I've taken my family to WoF/OoF multiple times since that park has opened but for some reason I've never had any desire yet to try it out. The general feedback I've read both on-line and from friends is that it was way overpriced (not developed enough for the price) and the big slide was dangerous and not that fun. Most of my friends would recommend just going to OoF, Great Wolf Lodge, or a few of some local aquatic centers around KC that are popping up everywhere with their own lazy rivers and slide complexes.
I'm guessing (and hoping at this point) that the slide will be destroyed and Schlitterbahn will be fortunate if they save the water park from going under.
Of course my heart goes out to the parents, family, friends.....and the park workers.....it's surely a tragedy all the way around.
Shlitterbahn offers things that I throughly enjoy like the lazy river with waves instead of a wave pool and the the floating tube rapids. The KC location needs more slides and they need to follow up on promised additional development even after the initial plans got 2008'd
We have been to a Shlitterbahn 4 of the past 5 years. Once in Galveston and New Braunfels and twice to Kansas City. We take full advent age of being able to take a cooler with drinks and food.
Seems like there is a lot of conflicting information out there even from the park spokesperson. In my opinion the ride was badly engineered from the start. They engineered it using parameters and specs for a roller coaster at first. We saw how far that got. I am sure everyone has seen the flying boat videos that surfaced during testing. Then to tear down part of it down and completely rebuild it without re engineering the entire thing was just a recipe for disaster.
My opinion of Schlitterbahn on my visit was of very lax safety measures anyway. I said I would never return after that. In the end it is just a terrible tragedy. Hopefully they will learn from the mistakes. On a side note Kansas has no government inspection program for amusement and theme parks. Not sure about Missouri. Not a good thing.
Quote from: Runner1960 on August 09, 2016, 12:44:36 PM
On a side note Kansas has no government inspection program for amusement and theme parks. Not sure about Missouri. Not a good thing.
I would guess that Missouri does since they have three theme parks (which is a lot for MO imo). Does Kansas even have a roller coaster?
http://rcdb.com/tv.htm?location=1,59,7151
Apparently they do. I do not know about any of them though.
This is a horrible tragedy. Prayers for the family. I have never been to Schlitterbahn but drive by often, so I cannot really comment on the engineering of the ride.
Wichita had/has(SBNO) an old 'classic' woodie at Joyland with closed a decade or two ago....Wichita also had a an attempt at a new park a couple years ago with Wild West World with I think a wild mouse ride to start with. WWD died quickly after only a month or two open and the rides sold off.
Topeka had a death trap of a rollercoaster that wrapped around a chain link fence at another 'joyland' park. I vaguely remember it as a kid in the 80s. Pretty sure that park closed in the 80's and has been a flea market since.
Olathe used to have a kiddie center in the big outlet mall with a small indoor worm coaster.....I'm guessing it is gone since the mall was pretty much dead the last time I saw it.
Pittsburgh has a kiddie park with a few rides that I think are ran by the city. Emporia has a neat mini train ride that is ran by volunteers.
I'm not surprised KS has no ride inspection rules or regulations. Other than the many county fairs that use the traveling carnivals there hasn't been a need for them to regulate any permanent rides until Schlitterbahn in KCK.
If this is true I bet it will get demo'd. You cannot recover from that kind of bad publicity. http://time.com/4444447/caleb-schwab-verruckt-water-slide-death/
Quote from: HumphreyHawk on August 09, 2016, 01:53:42 PM
Olathe used to have a kiddie center in the big outlet mall with a small indoor worm coaster.....I'm guessing it is gone since the mall was pretty much dead the last time I saw it.
They actually tore the Olathe mall down: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/cityscape/article88884837.html
My daughter was at Schlitterbahn just a week before the accident but it was just her and her boyfriend and they didn't meet the weight limit or want to ride with a stranger, so they didn't go on the big slide. So tragic for that boy's family, and happy to hear the slide will be closed the rest of the season.
Quote from: HumphreyHawk on August 09, 2016, 01:53:42 PM
Wichita had/has(SBNO) an old 'classic' woodie at Joyland with closed a decade or two ago.
Olathe used to have a kiddie center in the big outlet mall with a small indoor worm coaster.....I'm guessing it is gone since the mall was pretty much dead the last time I saw it.
The Rollercoaster at Joyland was torn completely down after it received major damage from a wind storm.
The Viper Pit and Jeepers is completely gone along with the Great Mall (though the coaster might have been bought by PowerPlay which opened near the old Metro North Mall)
Quote from: HumphreyHawk on August 09, 2016, 09:12:02 AM
You really sound ridiculous when you post from your high horse Swoosh.
I have to apologize for that. After reading countless posts by uniformed people on Twitter, Facebook, TPR, and here I just snapped and I took it out on you. That was uncalled for.
The slide has never really worked like originally planned. The actual slide has gone through countless modifications that I seriously have lost count on what version this is. They have a lot of issues keeping boats in "play" because they just get ate up on this thing. Not necessarily from the actual slide, but from getting them back up to the top. You may have seen the name Winter Prospario thrown around during this -- she's the chain's PR rep. She and I were in communication during most of the construction and then during its first season of being open. The slide went way over budget, but because this was HIS baby and pet project they had to see it through. She (off the record of course) is much happier with MASSIV as it opened on time and has worked as designed from the start.
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I have to apologize for that. After reading countless posts by uniformed people on Twitter, Facebook, TPR, and here I just snapped and I took it out on you. That was uncalled for.
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Thx....appreciate that....I get that the GP are frustrating. Calling you out isn't my proudest moment either....arguing online is something I typically avoid.
I have enjoyed your website for years.....I appreciate you putting it together and getting to explore all the places you go. I'm often jealous of what you get to do and people you've got to meet in the business. I developed my theme park nerdiness after starting my career and family....so I'm pretty dependent on sites like yours to see and explore the places I won't get to go to during this season of my life.
I can relate to that dealing with the GP online on social media and news sites during the Frontier City debacle which was just a simple lift hill/sensor failure.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article116542643.html
The tower stays but the slides are coming down.
Such a sad situation:( As frustrated as I am about the company and the stupidity of the slides design...I'm sure they didn't want this to happen and still hope the park can recover. Doubt they put anything in that is "extreme" in to replace it. At least not for a few more years. Be interesting if they see if they try it again (new design) there or anywhere else.
You have to realize was the pet project of the patriarch of Schlitterbahn. He died this year so he was no longer in the way of it coming down anyway. It has never operated as originally designed and was a nightmare for the park to keep running. The PR dept hated it.