A 10-YEAR-old boy was decapitated while riding a water slide in front of his horrified mom and brother in one of the US' worst theme park tragedies.
Caleb Schwab died six years ago in the tragedy at Schlitterbahn Park, in Kansas, on a water slide called Verruckt, which means crazy in German.
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Before its closure, the slide was ranked as the world’s tallest water slide by Guinness World Records, taller than the Statue of Liberty and Niagara Falls.
Caleb died when his raft became airborne and his head collided with one of the metal bars that held nets to help catch ride-goers.
Caleb’s head and body drifted down the water chute, ending up at the pool located at the bottom of the ride.
He was accompanied by two women, who survived the incident with minor facial injuries.
ON THEME PARKS
Caleb’s mom and brother were also in the theme park, with his mom having to be held back in order to avoid seeing Caleb’s body.
"There was a gentleman who wouldn't allow me to come close enough to see what was going on and kept saying: 'No, trust me. You don't want to go any further,” shared his mother Michelle.
Verruckt was designed by Jeff Henry, the co-owner of the park, and John Schooley, the park’s senior designer.
Neither man had a background in engineering and set out to build the tallest water slide in the world inspired by rollercoasters.
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Verruckt opened in 2014, after conducting construction and safety testing procedures that involved sandbags.
"Usually on a ride, it might be scary, but you figure that they have it figured out,” said Schooley in the documentary The Water Slide.
"And we didn't know whether we had it figured out or not."
The park hired an engineering firm to check the slide two weeks before it opened.
It issued a report that “guaranteed that rafts would occasionally go airborne in a manner that could severely injure or kill the occupants.”
Despite this, and the fact that Caleb’s father was representative of the state of Kansas, no one was found liable for Caleb’s death.
However, the family received a settlement of nearly $20 million.
Theme parks have witnessed some tragic accidents through the years, from eight teens killed in a haunted house to a child beheaded on a water slide.
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While some of the notorious incidents date back to the 1960s, a more recent tragedy struck earlier this year at a park in Orlando, Florida.
While there is only about 4.5 amusement park ride-related deaths per year according to BMW Law Group, some accidents have become infamous.
