Three Schlitterbahn executives have been arrested, charged with contributing to the death of a 10-year-old child on its record-breaking waterslide.
The indictment also names Schlitterbahn Kansas City.
On Aug. 7, 2016, Caleb Schwab was riding on Verruckt, called the world’s tallest waterslide, in a raft with two women. According to the indictment for the arrests, the raft went airborne, and the child made contact with overhead hoops and netting that were elevated above the slide for safety. The indictment characterized his injury as a decapitation. The document said a video recording of the boy’s death showed that he was obeying rider instructions.
On March 23, Tyler Austin Miles, former director of operations at Schlitterbahn Kansas City, was arrested for involuntary manslaughter, among other charges. He was released the same day.
His arrest was followed by even more stunning developments the following week: On March 26, Schlitterbahn Co-owner Jeffrey Wayne Henry, described in the indictment document as the designer of the 167-foot-tall waterslide, was arrested in Texas and charged with second degree murder. On April 2, the other designer named by the court, John Schooley, surrendered to the police at an airport. While some in the media portrayed his pursuit as a global manhunt, he is said to have been at work on a project in China.
Henry and Schooley face charges of second-degree murder, aggravated battery and aggravated endangering of a child.
In the indictment filed in court, a grand jury accused Henry and Schooley of willfully bypassing standard engineering procedures to ensure the waterslide’s safety. It said Miles continued to operate the ride despite several injuries that had occurred before, and that he withheld and even altered evidence after Caleb Schwab's death.
Schlitterbahn vehemently denied all charges. “The allegation that we operated, and failed to maintain, a ride that could foreseeably cause such a tragic accident is beyond the pale of speculation,” the firm said in a statement. “Many of us, and our children and grandchildren, have ridden the ride with complete confidence as to its safety. Our operational mantra has been and will forever be Safety First.”
A grand jury claims that Henry and Schooley did not subject the waterslide to accepted method for calculating the physics at play when riding the slide, called dynamic engineering. This should have taken place before construction, the indictment said, but there was no indication or proof that it occurred. Instead, the grand jury claims, Henry tested through trial and error after the slide was already built. Amusement-industry experts said that a team of three to four people - at least two of them qualified engineers – would take three to six months just to perform the calculations, the indictment claimed. Verruckt, on the other hand, materialized from concept to completion in seven months, with no qualified engineer conducting calculations ahead of construction, the court document claimed.
The grand jury accused Henry of rushing to construct the attraction, in large part to impress producers of a television show. The indictment quoted him saying he wanted bragging rights against other waterpark owners and operators.
Schlitterbahn countered: "The indictment uses quoted statements from a reality TV show that was scripted for dramatic effect, that in no way reflects the design and construction of the ride. Quotes were purported to be from definitive design meetings, when they were, in fact, 'acting.'"
The indictment also paints pictures of testing under cover of night before the slide’s grand opening to avoid scrutiny, after rumors had begun to circulate about airborne rafts.
“Verruckt suffered from a long list of dangerous design flaws,” the indictment said. “However the most obvious and potentially lethal flaw was that Verruckt’s design guaranteed that rafts would occasionally go airborne in a manner that could severely injure or kill the occupants. Henry, Schooley and Miles all knew about this problem before the ride opened to the public.”
Testing conducted a week before Verruckt’s grand opening indicated that rafts containing 400 to 550 would likely go airborne, the indictment said.
The grand jury listed 14 injuries on the waterslide that had been logged, with the first allegedly occurring less than 60 days after the attraction opened.
In addition to these accusations, the grand jury claims that Miles withheld some evidence and forced his staff to rewrite injury reports.
Schlitterbahn denied this as well. “We have operated with integrity from day one at the waterpark – as we do throughout our waterparks and resorts,” the company said. “We put our guests and employees safety first; and safety and maintenance are at the top of our list of priorities.
“Since the date of the incident we have worked closely with law enforcement; at no time have we withheld evidence; at no time have we altered evidence.”
The indictment also made claims about a whistleblower who came forward during the investigation, saying that the teenage lifeguard was harassed by an attorney representing Schlitterbahn Kansas City.
Last year, the parents of Caleb Schwab -- Kansas state legislator Scott Schwab, and his wife Michelle -- reached a settlement with Schlitterbahn.
Also in 2017, Kansas passed a law to impose more regulation on amusement parks.
