On Sunday in my neck of the woods, a 10 year old boy was killed on the worlds tallest water slide,Schlitterbahn's Verrückt.This water slide is taller than the Statue of Liberty or Niagra Falls. There was a delay in opening the ride in the first place due to safety concerns and it had to be re-engineered before it could actually work without launching test sand bags off. It is a three person ride, the combined weight must meet certain standards, and the safety harnesses are straps of velcro. Velcro? Yes, velcro.

My understanding is Caleb Schwab's harness malfunctioned, he was thrown up into the netting of the 'bottom hump' and killed at that point (I won't go into the gruesome details).

My question is, should there be age limits, not just height requirements? Should there be federal standards for inspections of thrill rides? I guess right now there aren't federal laws, it is left to the state to decide, and our state says as long as you have a 'qualified' inspector check every so often it is good enough. 

Would you ride this ride? I have attached the youtube video showing what it is like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNsAT_Owz-c

I love thrill rides, but I ride them knowing that they went through strict safety inspections and that dying or getting hurt by them is virtually impossible. It doesn't sound like that was the case here. I've heard the "gruesome details"... poor boy  :(

Looking at the video, the ride looks like a lot of fun. Before this death, I wouldn't have hesitated hopping on. Sad that someone had to die before anyone realized how dangerous it is.

As for age limits and height limits, I was under the assumption that most amusement parks did have those requirements?

There was a height limit of 54 inches. They originally had put an age limit of 14 and up but decided that it wasn't necessary.

I just saw on fb that he was decspitated. That poor kid.  And his poor family!!!  :\'(

I wonder if he actually met the height limit bc I know parents who have told kids to stand on their toes or workers who figured an inch or two off was close enough....

I don't know if age limit cuts it tho. Same thing coulda happened to a 12 or 15 year old (if it was a malfunction) unless the kid was doing something he shouldn't have to contribute to the incident. I didn't watch the video so I don't know what the ride is like.

It's a tough one.

On Sunday in my neck of the woods, a 10 year old boy was killed on the worlds tallest water slide,Schlitterbahn's Verrückt.This water slide is taller than the Statue of Liberty or Niagra Falls. There was a delay in opening the ride in the first place due to safety concerns and it had to be re-engineered before it could actually work without launching test sand bags off. It is a three person ride, the combined weight must meet certain standards, and the safety harnesses are straps of velcro. Velcro? Yes, velcro.

My understanding is Caleb Schwab's harness malfunctioned, he was thrown up into the netting of the 'bottom hump' and killed at that point (I won't go into the gruesome details).

My question is, should there be age limits, not just height requirements? Should there be federal standards for inspections of thrill rides? I guess right now there aren't federal laws, it is left to the state to decide, and our state says as long as you have a 'qualified' inspector check every so often it is good enough. 

Would you ride this ride? I have attached the youtube video showing what it is like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNsAT_Owz-c


I love water rides but this looks kind of scary. :o

This is the reason why I don't like going to amusement parks, especially roller coasters. That sh*t makes me think that I'll die in a very gruesome way, considering of how they're made with electrical parts that would kill someone if they weren't following the safety guidelines. I only went on one roller coaster, and I wanted to get out because it seemed too fast for me. Luckily, the guy who controlled it stopped after I while, and I never been on a roller coaster ever since.

This is the reason why I don't like going to amusement parks, especially roller coasters. That sh*t makes me think that I'll die in a very gruesome way, considering of how they're made with electrical parts that would kill someone if they weren't following the safety guidelines. I only went on one roller coaster, and I wanted to get out because it seemed too fast for me. Luckily, the guy who controlled it stopped after I while, and I never been on a roller coaster ever since.


I never been on a roller coaster before.

I never been on a roller coaster before.


I envy you, man. You lived about 42 years as of this post, and for the fact that you never ridden one is a bit interesting.

I posted this on another thread:




Six Flags New England was originally called Riverside Park. We used to go there frequently since we lived in the area. One time when I was about 9 or 10, I was there with 2 of my sisters & my best friend at the time. My sisters wanted to go on the roller coaster but my friend & I didn't. We got candy apples and decided to go on the Tilt-A-Whir instead which was next to the roller coaster. Since we had the candy apples, only 2 of us could go on it at a time while the other two held the apples. It was our turn to hold the apples.

I heard a BANG! I looked toward where it was coming from to see my friend running toward the roller coaster. I followed. When I got there, I saw the roller coaster car on its side and people climbing out. The ride just started and was going around the bend to get to its ascend. Luckily it didn't make it to the ascend before it tipped. What really got me and I will ALWAYS remember this. There was a woman in the crowd who cried, "RICHARD! HE'S UNDER THERE!" I have no idea who Richard was or if he was hurt (actually if anyone was hurt) or not but it scared the bejesus out of me. I thought what if my friend & I hadn't talked my sisters out of going on the roller coaster? Would they have been on that fateful ride or still had been waiting in line? I don't know. And I'm glad that I didn't find out. It was THAT POINT when I really became afraid of roller coasters. Of course I was afraid to get on any ride that day-but I was convinced to go on the antique cars and of course the fun house since it wasn't really a ride.

I have gotten on a few of them since-even ones that go upside down. But, I do not like them.







Cat

I envy you, man. You lived about 42 years as of this post, and for the fact that you never ridden one is a bit interesting.


I've never been on one before and after reading about things that's been happening on them, I won't experience riding on them one anytime soon.

Scary!!

This is truly horrible. I hate to see things like this happen at places that are supposed to be carefree and fun.

About 10 years ago, my best friend and I were almost thrown to our deaths out of a ride, but it was at the state fair and not a year-round park. We got on the ride commonly known as the spider, but I chickened out and hopped off. Later that evening before we left to go back to my house me and my friend Stacie got on it. Now I was 100 lbs heavier, but Stacie was very slim about 110lbs. We both get on, our other friends wee on the  ground looking. The way the ride goes tthis part that holds your feet flips up and hooks so you can hold onto the handle bard as you spin through the air. That damn thing started and hand to god, it was LOOSE. Like it was hooked but not tightly enough. And you know if my larger ass was about to fly out if i didn't hold on, you know Stacie was going to fly out. And all I remember is seeing the pavement and parking lot underneath us, and saying hail marys scared to death we were going to lose our grip and fly. Stacie was crying, we were so scared. It's a 3 minute ride but felt like eternity. It we had let go it'd have been curtains for us. We were all shaking and snotting when we got off and our other friends were like what? And we explained. I've never been that terrified in my life.

If that child's seat did malfunction, I hate it happened, but I know the rules are in place for a REASON. But the workers need to ensure that the rides are up to par too. I'm sorry that little boy died. All he wanted was to have a good time.