Topics: News, US News, Documentaries
A chilling documentary shares the harrowing details of the 'world's tallest waterslide' that tragically decapitated a ten-year-old boy in 2016.
Caleb Schwab and his family visited Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas for a day of fun and joy - but the family day out ended in tragedy.
Caleb went on the waterpark's famous 'Verrückt' ride, the world's tallest waterslide at the time, standing at a whopping 169 feet tall.
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Opening in 2014, the ride saw people across the US coming to visit, as it quickly became a hugely popular attraction because of its record-breaking heights.
Ride-goers would begin by climbing over 200 steps to get to the top, before climbing aboard water rafts and plummeting down the huge slide.
People would reportedly hit speeds of 70mph as they sped down the slide, but Caleb ended up being decapitated on his way down.
The young boy was said to have been thrown from the raft towards the netting surrounding the slide - which had put there for safety purposes - and made contact with a metal pole, which killed him instantly.
Schlitterbahn Waterpark said in a statement at the time: "In our 50 years of providing an environment for families and friends to gather, we've never experienced this kind of devastating event. The safety of our staff and our guests is our top priority," according to ABC News.
"We are parents and grandparents ourselves, and many of us had ridden Verruckt with our own children and grandchildren over the years it operated.
"At Schlitterbahn, we take safety very seriously. We support effective guidelines that increase guest and staff safety."
Filmmaker Nathan Truesdell produced a short documentary on Caleb's tragic passing, using news and promotional footage to make The World’s Tallest Water Slide Was a Terrible, Tragic Idea.
Speaking about some of the things he learnt while making the film, Truesdell told The Atlantic: "There wasn't a lot of science or ride engineering involved in the testing and design.
"They were sending sandbags down and basically hoping that they didn't fly off of the slide. The netting that ultimately ended up killing the child was added to prevent the rafts from flying off of the slide completely."
Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeff Henry and senior designer John Schooley had been facing criminal charges in relation to the ten-year-old's death, but they were later dismissed.
Tyler Miles, who was operations manager at the time, also had an involuntary manslaughter charge dropped because of inadmissible evidence.
Schlitterbahn Waterpark closed its doors for good in September 2018.
