Waterside Designers Charged With Murder

The Verrückt (German for crazy or insane) opened in 2014 at the Schlitterbahn Kansas City water park. At the time of it's opening, it was the tallest waterslide in the world at at 168 feet 7 inches, and reached speeds of 70 MPH.




On August 7, 2016, the 10-year-old son of Kansas state representative Scott Schwab died while riding Verrückt. The boy was decapitated when the raft went airborne and impacted a metal bar supporting netting. He was one of three passengers with two women, one of whom suffered a broken jaw and the other a broken face bone requiring stitches.

It appears that the raft went airborn at the apex of the second drop:





The Kansas attorney general's office said Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeffrey Henry, 62, and designer John Schooley were charged with reckless second-degree murder, along with Henry & Sons Construction Co., which is described as the private construction company of Schlitterbahn.

Although these types of accidents are very rare, a murder charge is unprecedented. I have to wonder if the father of the victim being a state representative has anything to do with it. But according to the prosecutors, the ride was known to be dangerous and many efforts were taken by the park to cover up the problems and release the ride. Apparently rafts becoming airborne was a major problem while testing the ride, and instead of doing proper physics calculations and engineering, they made changes through trial and error testing with sandbags, and added the netting as there was still a substantial risk.

Crazy stuff. I am interested to see if the murder charges stick.

I think the charges will stick though political motivation is obvious.

They never did any proper engineering studies first. They just built it and tried it out.
They did filming at night so as to avoid rumors about the unsafe condition.
Airborne rafts had caused non fatal injuries but clearly could hit a hoop rather than just the inter-hoop mesh.

It was a modification for headlines and an unsafe risk to the public. All they would have needed was larger diameter hoops.

Quote: Fleastiff

I think the charges will stick though political motivation is obvious.

They never did any proper engineering studies first. They just built it and tried it out.
They did filming at night so as to avoid rumors about the unsafe condition.
Airborne rafts had caused non fatal injuries but clearly could hit a hoop rather than just the inter-hoop mesh.

It was a modification for headlines and an unsafe risk to the public. All they would have needed was larger diameter hoops.

Quote: Fleastiff

I think the charges will stick though political motivation is obvious.

They never did any proper engineering studies first. They just built it and tried it out.
They did filming at night so as to avoid rumors about the unsafe condition.
Airborne rafts had caused non fatal injuries but clearly could hit a hoop rather than just the inter-hoop mesh.

It was a modification for headlines and an unsafe risk to the public. All they would have needed was larger diameter hoops.

I don’t understand why they felt the need for a second drop at all. Obviously the purpose was to slow the raft down after the initial big drop, but rafts were getting stuck, so they added water jets to push them over the second hill.



There had to have been a better way to slow the riders down. A longer run with water jets pointing the opposite way, several smaller hills, something other than what looks like an ramp that Evel Knievel would jump off of.

Clearly it was an issue early on, as they made this modification during the construction ---


Before:


After:


I've also read the the rafts originally had additional friction breaking, which were removed due to them causing maintenance issues.

I've heard of people getting vomited on from fair rides, but a blood from a headless body would be a bit much.

Quote: gamerfreak

I am interested to see if the murder charges stick.

I would be happy to bet the charges get watered down on appeal, as I think they should, based on what little I know. Manslaughter sounds like a better fit.

What Are the Different Types of Criminal Homicide?

Quote: Wizard

I would be happy to bet the charges get watered down on appeal, as I think they should, based on what little I know. Manslaughter sounds like a better fit.

What Are the Different Types of Criminal Homicide?

Well, they got charged with all of that too --

"They also were charged with 17 other felonies, including aggravated battery and aggravated endangerment of a child counts tied to injuries other riders sustained on the giant slide"

I've read that Kansas law defines 2nd degree murder as "Killings resulting from an extreme indifference to human life"

Can't see murder sticking. At most some kind of criminal negligent homicide.

Cresting the top of a slope at high speed produces negative gs, which gives a thrilling sense of weightlessness. It's a feature in roller coaster design, and the reason so many of them begin with a big drop and then a climb.

Roller coaster cars can be secured to the tracks, so they're very safe. Water slides have no tracks or wheels, so they're not as safe (this is also why many are enclosed tubes). With slides you're much more dependent on reducing the inherent speeds, slopes, angles of turn, etc.

As to the legal matters, these vary a lot by state. but usually things like "extreme indifference to human life" are upgraded to a murder charge only when associated with another felony, like robbery, assault, DUI, etc. Regardless, the civil liability will be huge.

I always thought the director of that film crew that killed an intern at a rail road bridge should have been charged with murder, he abandoned all safety concerns and never sent anyone far enough uptrack with an airhorn to announce an oncoming train.

Quote: Fleastiff

I always thought the director of that film crew that killed an intern at a rail road bridge should have been charged with murder, he abandoned all safety concerns and never sent anyone far enough uptrack with an airhorn to announce an oncoming train.

How about John Landis killing 2 children and 1 adult actor with a helicopter:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_Zone_accident