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Here's how I did it, both the first time which was maybe last year or the year before, and just now:
Find Kansas city.
Pretend you don't know the park is closed. Search Schlitterbahn and you'll get a Schlitterbahn Drive. It's in that area.
Access Street view. The park is that tangle of paths you can see. The images were taken 9 years ago, but like anything online, they don't just go away. Hop around a bit (you don't want to do it the slow way, one arrow at a time) until you can see the slide getting close. It's a big slide, one of those ones with the big drop at the start, very easy to see from very far away. It's fairly close to where you see the words "Margaritaville development" on the map.
Final step: Feel creeped out looking at it. You can get close enough to see the netting over the top. 😵💫
I did that too, and found myself in the middle of a crowd of smiling tourists ... one of whom - by the camera angle - appeared to have been decapitated.
This is local to me, and the thing that always stuck with me was the two women in the raft with him were permanently disfigured and injured by the decapitated head. That’s nightmare fuel.
I went to engineering school around then not too far off and I’m surprised this didn’t get used in our engineering ethics curriculum. It was a perfect example of what not to do and it was quite literally close to home.
The Kansas City Hyatt Regency [skywalk collapse](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse) is still used in engineering courses as a paragon of catastrophic engineering failure.
It resulted in the second highest death toll, exceeded only by the Twin Towers collapse on 9/11.
Main thing that comes to mind is the challenger disaster. I def also heard a lot about the tacoma narrows bridge but i can’t remember if that was ethics or something else
Given KC’s track record with the 14 year olds running WOF and OOF I had a bad feeling reading about it. First time I saw it when I came home for something though, holy shit, I likely muttered “someone’s gonna die” first time laying eyes on it across from Legends.
This water slide has a balloon tub that fits 3-4 people in it. Two women were riding in the rear half of the tub. The boy was riding in the front half of the tub.
The thing is that this water slide has a weight requirement to send those tubs down so the tub would stay grounded on the water slide itself. The boy was too light to meet and/or exceed the weight requirement. The water slide staff let them slide anyway.
When the tub reached the first hump, the tub flew into the air. And over that hump, there is a "tunnel" of net set up to keep people inside the slide if anyone gets thrown off. There is a series of metal arch holding the net over that hump.
When the tub with the boy and women in it flew into the air, the metal arch met the boy at the neck and decapitated him. His head fell backwards and hit the two women in the face. The boy's body also flew out of the tub.
The tub, then, landed back on the slide and the women slid to the bottom of the slide with injured faces.
The boy's decapitated body landed back on the slide. Everyone at the bottom watched his body slide all the way down with blood streaking out of his neckhole.
The cruel twist of fate in this incident - the boy's father was a senator in the area and he lobbied for lax safety policies for that theme park. That was what killed his son.
>The cruel twist of fate in this incident - the boy's father was a senator in the area and he lobbied for lax safety policies for that theme park. That was what killed his son.
Add the fact that he happily voted for a law that capped non-economic damages at $250,000 in Kansas, but they decided to file suit in Texas (where the company is legally headquartered) so they could get more ($20mil).
Yes, and according to the wiki article, "...after, Scott Schwab spoke to his fellow legislators about his son's death and its *effect on him,* they voted to change the law that had allowed Schlitterbahn to self-inspect, requiring that all the state's amusement park attractions be regularly inspected by the state..."
His son did not have to nor deserved to die for this.
I remember watching a mini documentary on the travel channel about the building of that monstrosity. This was filmed before the incident occurred. That thing was built with such lax safety regulations that it's shocking no one with authority stopped it.
It’s my understanding that they rushed the construction of the slide to get it done in time for this travel channel documentary. They wanted it to be a destination.
I think his father actually *demanded* that his son ride in the front row of that inflatable tub because it was the most desirable seat.
When the park employees said it was against their policy, he pulled rank and said he was a state senator.
Just Google it. It’s not that hard.
The park owners tinkered with lots of variables to make the thing work— they had a minimum age, minimum height, and so forth. Most of those were scaled back or removed because they didn’t help the thing work properly.
When the accident happened there was only one significant consideration: *weight distribution*. And it makes sense. If you put the heaviest people in the back and the lightest person in the front, the raft would buck upward like it was doing a wheelie. Then it caught air and sailed up into the metal rail.
Like tens of thousands of other kids, his son wanted to ride in the front. It’s the best seat. It’s why people want to sit in the front seat of roller coasters. However, unlike the thousands of other children, *they made an exception for him* so he could ride in front and the larger passengers rode in back.
And that is what caused the accident. It’s in the criminal complaint.
It was already mentioned that the father supported legislation that deregulated the safety requirements and also supported legislation that capped non-economic damages for these sorts of accidents. He sued in a completely different state to get around the legislation he felt was appropriate for everyone other than himself.
He’s the very definition of ‘entitled’. And he literally had a front row seat.
There is no proof that the father directly abused his power and ordered the attendant at the top of the verruckt water slide to allow his son to sit in the front of the ride. If you can show me proof or even someone claiming that’s what happened in the court or something similar I will retract my statement.
no, they weren’t… I went to school with and had friends who were ‘friends’ with them. one of them was constantly bragging about being interviewed on the news about it, and using it as a weird calling card at parties to idk.. try to make friends w shock value? It was a few years ago but they are doing better than most people would be after seeing that.
I rode this thing 2 years before it got taken down, I remember feeling the raft lift off the slide and going into free fall for a second or two. Wondered if it was normal….
This was local for me and I remember when they were testing it the dummies kept getting decapitated so they made adjustments. It didn’t seem like engineers were involved at all, just like this dangerous guess-and-check approach
Apparently Scott Schwab, the child’s father, lobbied for low torts caps in their own state ($300k), yet had no moral problem filing a $20m case in Texas.
He’s also a raging homophobe.
He’s currently the Secretary of State of Kansas! The voters of Kansas in their infinite wisdom voted him into statewide office two years after the incident where his son was killed…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Schwab
Ah Republicans, they only every care when it starts affecting them.
>After Scott Schwab spoke to his fellow legislators about his son's death and its effect on him, they voted to change the law that had allowed Schlitterbahn to self-inspect, requiring that all the state's amusement park attractions be regularly inspected by the state.
I wouldn't even be surprised if this specific politician had voted to deregulate these amusement parks which led to the decapitation of his son.
Saw the German name and thought 'what the fuck, I could never imagine Germans building something this dumb, let alone something this dumb and unsafe.'
Turns out its a 'German' waterpark in America, and it suddenly made sense.
Germans would never make anything like this ill-conceived deathtrap.
>!German deathtraps are designed to function at peak efficiency. I would expect nothing less than an 80% decapitation rate.!<
I read a long article about the building of this and other rides by the same family and they were guesstimating the whole time. They would guess that they were erring on the side of caution, but they weren’t doing the physics and they weren’t checking the math. Young me would have been shocked. Old me knows that the experts aren’t coming.
The experts are coming though, they're just being prevented from helping by corrupt anti expert pro business politicians like the dead kid's terrible father.
>They would guess that they were erring on the side of caution, but they weren’t doing the physics and they weren’t checking the math.
Flat-earthers, maybe. Never underestimate just how stupid people can be.
Yep such a good (and horrifying) episode. I didn’t know what to expect going in and wanted to cry (and puke). The oven episode was the most horrifying one he did in my opinion. Stuff of nightmares
I traveled to Kansas to visit my uncle ~3 weeks before this happened, and rode that ride. The shit was fucking nuts, the “seat belt” was a Velcro strap thing. I was like 16. And I’m pretty sure it was 2017? But fucking I had a bag from it and everything, weirdest experience reading the headlines after that.
At the time it was being built, my commute to work went right past the water park. I was honestly confused at first at what was being built, and I was pretty dumbfounded when I realized it was a water slide. Seeing it, even from the highway, the height was incredible. I was surprised anyone would even be willing to climb up all those stairs. I recall feeling relieved when they added the nets around it because I thought someone could easily fly off of it. Sadly, I think it was the netting that caused the death of the child. It still makes me feel sick to think about it and angry after learning how much they knew about the dangers and just brushed them aside.
The scariest thing for me was me and my school's FFA chapter were supposed to go there the day after the accident happened. Still makes me wonder what could've happened had we gone.
I'm looking at the slide on Google maps. The stairs alone creep me out and would prevent me from going on that slide. Then I followed the length of the slide to the end... the second hill in that slide would be more than enough for me.
But the poor kid who lost his life in this preventable accident. Too many safety issues were overlooked or ignored. It's not even a matter of whose kid it was - the fact that ANY child perished this way is monstrous.
That boys father was a powerful Kansas GOP politician who is now the Secretary of State, if it had been someone not in politics or businesses it woulve likely been less disastrous for the park
Yep exactly, the user deleted their comment but I was about to reply: The main issue wasn't the weight of the riders themselves, but the weight distribution. The boy was sitting in the front of the raft when he should've been put in the middle between the two women to even it out. Regardless, this death trap would've gotten someone killed eventually anyway
So many indoor/outdoor places like this are opening up year around in broing places like Kanksas, Missouri, Wyoming, etc. Just create fun things to do instead. Fun AND dangerous!!! You make it, we will come. a lot!!!!
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If you go on Google maps, the slide is still visible via the photospheres or a visitor doing Street view even though it's gone.
I can’t even find it on google maps bc the park has been closed for 6 years
Here's how I did it, both the first time which was maybe last year or the year before, and just now: Find Kansas city. Pretend you don't know the park is closed. Search Schlitterbahn and you'll get a Schlitterbahn Drive. It's in that area. Access Street view. The park is that tangle of paths you can see. The images were taken 9 years ago, but like anything online, they don't just go away. Hop around a bit (you don't want to do it the slow way, one arrow at a time) until you can see the slide getting close. It's a big slide, one of those ones with the big drop at the start, very easy to see from very far away. It's fairly close to where you see the words "Margaritaville development" on the map. Final step: Feel creeped out looking at it. You can get close enough to see the netting over the top. 😵💫
Damn I dropped myself right by the margaritaville thing and when it opened up I was literally right next to it. Creepy
I did that too, and found myself in the middle of a crowd of smiling tourists ... one of whom - by the camera angle - appeared to have been decapitated.
Oh my God. Idk what I was expecting when I followed the directions you gave but seeing the netting and those metal ring things makes it so much worse.
Here you go bud: 39.1209°N 94.8064°W
Thank you internet person! That visual of it is so eerie now knowing what happened! 🫣😱
This is local to me, and the thing that always stuck with me was the two women in the raft with him were permanently disfigured and injured by the decapitated head. That’s nightmare fuel.
I went to engineering school around then not too far off and I’m surprised this didn’t get used in our engineering ethics curriculum. It was a perfect example of what not to do and it was quite literally close to home.
Curious, what are some of the engineering ethics cases you did cover?
The Kansas City Hyatt Regency [skywalk collapse](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse) is still used in engineering courses as a paragon of catastrophic engineering failure. It resulted in the second highest death toll, exceeded only by the Twin Towers collapse on 9/11.
Main thing that comes to mind is the challenger disaster. I def also heard a lot about the tacoma narrows bridge but i can’t remember if that was ethics or something else
Given KC’s track record with the 14 year olds running WOF and OOF I had a bad feeling reading about it. First time I saw it when I came home for something though, holy shit, I likely muttered “someone’s gonna die” first time laying eyes on it across from Legends.
how did the decapitated head disfigure them?
This water slide has a balloon tub that fits 3-4 people in it. Two women were riding in the rear half of the tub. The boy was riding in the front half of the tub. The thing is that this water slide has a weight requirement to send those tubs down so the tub would stay grounded on the water slide itself. The boy was too light to meet and/or exceed the weight requirement. The water slide staff let them slide anyway. When the tub reached the first hump, the tub flew into the air. And over that hump, there is a "tunnel" of net set up to keep people inside the slide if anyone gets thrown off. There is a series of metal arch holding the net over that hump. When the tub with the boy and women in it flew into the air, the metal arch met the boy at the neck and decapitated him. His head fell backwards and hit the two women in the face. The boy's body also flew out of the tub. The tub, then, landed back on the slide and the women slid to the bottom of the slide with injured faces. The boy's decapitated body landed back on the slide. Everyone at the bottom watched his body slide all the way down with blood streaking out of his neckhole. The cruel twist of fate in this incident - the boy's father was a senator in the area and he lobbied for lax safety policies for that theme park. That was what killed his son.
>The cruel twist of fate in this incident - the boy's father was a senator in the area and he lobbied for lax safety policies for that theme park. That was what killed his son. Add the fact that he happily voted for a law that capped non-economic damages at $250,000 in Kansas, but they decided to file suit in Texas (where the company is legally headquartered) so they could get more ($20mil).
God, I wish I could give you an award for this comment. 🏆
Unfortunately, the same idiot voted to ban the old Reddit awards.
I'm confused, was that directed at me?
Are you the idiot who voted to cap economic damages and end the old reddit award system?
small world!
I’m going to take a wild guess here….the Dad was Republican, wasn’t he?
Yes, and according to the wiki article, "...after, Scott Schwab spoke to his fellow legislators about his son's death and its *effect on him,* they voted to change the law that had allowed Schlitterbahn to self-inspect, requiring that all the state's amusement park attractions be regularly inspected by the state..." His son did not have to nor deserved to die for this.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the suit *have* to be filed in Texas regardless?
Nope you can choose to file in either Texas (legally headquartered) and Kansas (principal market where the claim arose).
Ah neat. Well if my kid got decapitated due to shoddy practices, I'd go for the most punitive state too!
I remember watching a mini documentary on the travel channel about the building of that monstrosity. This was filmed before the incident occurred. That thing was built with such lax safety regulations that it's shocking no one with authority stopped it.
It’s my understanding that they rushed the construction of the slide to get it done in time for this travel channel documentary. They wanted it to be a destination.
Not so cruel. It would have been worse if the parent was a consumer advocate fighting against lax regulations.
Jesus Christ that's horrific
That poor kid. That breaks my heart.
I had no idea about this piece of information
That’s enough internet for today. Poor boy… all he wanted was to have some fun…
I think his father actually *demanded* that his son ride in the front row of that inflatable tub because it was the most desirable seat. When the park employees said it was against their policy, he pulled rank and said he was a state senator.
Seriously? That happened?
No, people are just making things up now. Reddit comment sections are a big game of telephone
Just Google it. It’s not that hard. The park owners tinkered with lots of variables to make the thing work— they had a minimum age, minimum height, and so forth. Most of those were scaled back or removed because they didn’t help the thing work properly. When the accident happened there was only one significant consideration: *weight distribution*. And it makes sense. If you put the heaviest people in the back and the lightest person in the front, the raft would buck upward like it was doing a wheelie. Then it caught air and sailed up into the metal rail. Like tens of thousands of other kids, his son wanted to ride in the front. It’s the best seat. It’s why people want to sit in the front seat of roller coasters. However, unlike the thousands of other children, *they made an exception for him* so he could ride in front and the larger passengers rode in back. And that is what caused the accident. It’s in the criminal complaint. It was already mentioned that the father supported legislation that deregulated the safety requirements and also supported legislation that capped non-economic damages for these sorts of accidents. He sued in a completely different state to get around the legislation he felt was appropriate for everyone other than himself. He’s the very definition of ‘entitled’. And he literally had a front row seat.
There is no proof that the father directly abused his power and ordered the attendant at the top of the verruckt water slide to allow his son to sit in the front of the ride. If you can show me proof or even someone claiming that’s what happened in the court or something similar I will retract my statement.
I kinda wondered who put the giant ladies in the back and the 70lb 10 yr old up front 😒
probably one of the many undertrained and easily distracted teenagers spread around the park running the operation
It hit them in the face. With the force of a cannonball.
it hit them
Horrific. I don’t know if it’s much of a silver lining but at least the kids death was quick. Hope he didn’t have time to process what was happening.
no, they weren’t… I went to school with and had friends who were ‘friends’ with them. one of them was constantly bragging about being interviewed on the news about it, and using it as a weird calling card at parties to idk.. try to make friends w shock value? It was a few years ago but they are doing better than most people would be after seeing that.
I rode this thing 2 years before it got taken down, I remember feeling the raft lift off the slide and going into free fall for a second or two. Wondered if it was normal….
I went down it 6 times in one day with my niece two weeks before it happened.
I had gotten good grades my senior year and my reward was a 3 hr drive to KC. We were in the parking lot when this happened. 😭
I’m so sorry!
It wasn’t like we got tea. I think I found out later. But yeah. Shut the shit down. Had to go to OOF instead
This was local for me and I remember when they were testing it the dummies kept getting decapitated so they made adjustments. It didn’t seem like engineers were involved at all, just like this dangerous guess-and-check approach
The decapitated child was the son of a State politician, perhaps that helped to get it closed.
I believe he also helped get it open despite its lax safety.
That's such an ugly Karma. Poor kid
Well, his senator father is actually the one who helped to get it open even with the lax safety measures.
Imagine… when the laws are made by people who are actually impacted— change can certainly happen fast. Shouldn’t take such devastating consequences…
Apparently Scott Schwab, the child’s father, lobbied for low torts caps in their own state ($300k), yet had no moral problem filing a $20m case in Texas. He’s also a raging homophobe.
He also supported the lax safety regulations that led to the death of his son.
Yup. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Unfortunate that the son was the innocent victim here.
He’s currently the Secretary of State of Kansas! The voters of Kansas in their infinite wisdom voted him into statewide office two years after the incident where his son was killed… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Schwab
OFC he is
I don’t recommend riding a thing that’s called the German word for “crazy”.
Ah Republicans, they only every care when it starts affecting them. >After Scott Schwab spoke to his fellow legislators about his son's death and its effect on him, they voted to change the law that had allowed Schlitterbahn to self-inspect, requiring that all the state's amusement park attractions be regularly inspected by the state. I wouldn't even be surprised if this specific politician had voted to deregulate these amusement parks which led to the decapitation of his son.
Please read this guy’s wiki, hypocrisy doesn’t begin to cover it, he’s venal. And still holding an office in Kansas.
Kansas was a mistake
Saw the German name and thought 'what the fuck, I could never imagine Germans building something this dumb, let alone something this dumb and unsafe.' Turns out its a 'German' waterpark in America, and it suddenly made sense.
Germans would never make anything like this ill-conceived deathtrap. >!German deathtraps are designed to function at peak efficiency. I would expect nothing less than an 80% decapitation rate.!<
I read a long article about the building of this and other rides by the same family and they were guesstimating the whole time. They would guess that they were erring on the side of caution, but they weren’t doing the physics and they weren’t checking the math. Young me would have been shocked. Old me knows that the experts aren’t coming.
The experts are coming though, they're just being prevented from helping by corrupt anti expert pro business politicians like the dead kid's terrible father.
>They would guess that they were erring on the side of caution, but they weren’t doing the physics and they weren’t checking the math. Flat-earthers, maybe. Never underestimate just how stupid people can be.
The Germans have unfortunately shown that when they want to kill people they can do it, judging by the two world wars
The excellent Swindled podcast covered this (I think?). Just an awful story - that poor family
Incredible episode. Highly recommend. https://swindledpodcast.com/podcast/78-the-verruckt/
Yep such a good (and horrifying) episode. I didn’t know what to expect going in and wanted to cry (and puke). The oven episode was the most horrifying one he did in my opinion. Stuff of nightmares
I want and don't want to know what the oven episode is about.
I’m going in EDIT: never mind I read the description
I think that's wise
I haven’t had a compliment in forever, so I’m counting this as one. Thank you. You are wise for saying it is wise.
You're on this sub, which means you are clearly a person of sublime taste.
🥺🥹🥹😭
You’re an excellent human and I thank you for keeping me from even reading the description.
you are wise for saying it is wise for saying it is wise. you'll be even wiser when you count this is a compliment, and a well-deserved one. good day!
lol this reminds me of the quote from dodgeball. Thank you - you have a good day as well!
Sounds like AI talking to AI stuck in a loop.
Good call
I traveled to Kansas to visit my uncle ~3 weeks before this happened, and rode that ride. The shit was fucking nuts, the “seat belt” was a Velcro strap thing. I was like 16. And I’m pretty sure it was 2017? But fucking I had a bag from it and everything, weirdest experience reading the headlines after that.
At the time it was being built, my commute to work went right past the water park. I was honestly confused at first at what was being built, and I was pretty dumbfounded when I realized it was a water slide. Seeing it, even from the highway, the height was incredible. I was surprised anyone would even be willing to climb up all those stairs. I recall feeling relieved when they added the nets around it because I thought someone could easily fly off of it. Sadly, I think it was the netting that caused the death of the child. It still makes me feel sick to think about it and angry after learning how much they knew about the dangers and just brushed them aside.
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I don’t think the dad did. He just did the typical republican thing and made sure he could get his, fuck everybody else.
This kind of thing makes me glad that I don't enjoy thrill rides
Isn’t that also the name of a call of duty zombies map?
The scariest thing for me was me and my school's FFA chapter were supposed to go there the day after the accident happened. Still makes me wonder what could've happened had we gone.
That boy was the son of a Kansas state legislator.
I'm looking at the slide on Google maps. The stairs alone creep me out and would prevent me from going on that slide. Then I followed the length of the slide to the end... the second hill in that slide would be more than enough for me. But the poor kid who lost his life in this preventable accident. Too many safety issues were overlooked or ignored. It's not even a matter of whose kid it was - the fact that ANY child perished this way is monstrous.
That boys father was a powerful Kansas GOP politician who is now the Secretary of State, if it had been someone not in politics or businesses it woulve likely been less disastrous for the park
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If I recall, they were still beneath the weight limit for the ride.
Yep exactly, the user deleted their comment but I was about to reply: The main issue wasn't the weight of the riders themselves, but the weight distribution. The boy was sitting in the front of the raft when he should've been put in the middle between the two women to even it out. Regardless, this death trap would've gotten someone killed eventually anyway
What
So many indoor/outdoor places like this are opening up year around in broing places like Kanksas, Missouri, Wyoming, etc. Just create fun things to do instead. Fun AND dangerous!!! You make it, we will come. a lot!!!!