Verrückt water slide decapitation 10

[bimr]

A water park boss has been charged after a 10-year-old boy was decapitated on the world’s most tallest slide which investigators claim “violated every safety rule”.

Jeffrey Wayne Henry, 62, co-owner of Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts, was arrested in Cameron County, Texas, on a federal warrant that was issued after the company's Kansas City, Kansas, park and its former director of operations, Tyler Austin Miles, were indicted last week in Kansas state court in the death of Caleb, the son of Kansas state Rep. Scott Schwab.

According to the indictment, Henry "possesses no technical or engineering credentials, yet he controls decisions regarding Schlitterbahn design and construction projects."

Co-owner of the waterpark was arrested

Schlitterbahn Water Park Boss

 

[IRstuff]

I don't see that being relevant. The structure didn't fail, and the ride dynamics were probably accounted for in the design, since there's a loading from the initial drop going into rise that should be easily calculable for the original design.

Now, it might be arguable that the SE should have foreseen the speed going into the rise being too fast for ride safety.

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[JStephen]

I think the rider dynamics would be a pretty small part of the overall loading, and you could reasonably make some conservative assumptions on that part of it. The bigger challenge would be wind on a tall light odd-shaped structure.

 

[BridgeSmith]

Not only would the ride dynamics be a small portion of the total loading, as JStephen said, but the dynamic forces almost completely cancel each other out.

As far as the SE foreseeing the dynamics being problematic, I believe he did, and warned Schooley and Henry about it in an email, if I remember correctly. However, he had no input and bears no responsibility for functionality of the slide or the safety of the dynamics.

 

The competition for
"World's Highest",
"World's Steepest",
"World's Fastest" ride
can only lead to
"World's Most Dangerous" ride.



"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts."

 

[MikeHalloran]

There's no question about the safety of the structure.
Videos of early tests show rafts becoming airborne at the second hump.
That's where things got stupid; installing hoops and net or fence over the ride to catch the rafts.
Disney would have used one or more rails with wheels capturing the rail flanges so that the rafts absolutely could not separate from the flume, ever.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

'Verrückt' sounds like it could be German for 'completely failed'. Maybe it is.

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts."

 

[JohnRBaker]

Actually, it means 'insane' or 'crazy'.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[ornerynorsk]

https://abcnews.go.com/US/schlitterbahn-water-slide-10-year-boy-killed-torn/story?id=56548821

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

 

[BridgeSmith]

From the link: "Schlitterbahn water slide where 10-year-old boy was killed to be torn down..."

No surprise there. Assuming it could be redesigned (I should say "designed", since it was never actually designed when it was built) to be safe to ride, most people would not trust it. Most likely the whole park will be closed down, since it's unlikely that many people will trust any of the rides there, since the "designers" are charged with murder for one ride they "designed".

 

[VEBill]

"...older rides... Newer rides..."

A few years ago, my 2nd kid was spending most of the day on a huge rotating swing. The ride took him about 25 feet in the air, orbiting at perhaps 50kmh (?), sitting in a small swing seat suspended by chains. Visually and instinctively, it appeared to be very dangerous. The ride itself was marked as being made in Germany, so I felt slightly reassured that it was probably well engineered. Then I noticed that it actually said, "Made in West Germany" - so it was presumably about 30 (40?) years old at the time. Yikes!

 

[IRstuff]

West Germany only officially ended 28 years ago, and so long as the steel wasn't rusty and the bolts were still tightened, the only other concern might have been the seat material itself.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[JStephen]

Hey, I was made in West Germany, I might be rusty or have loose screws, but basically still doing okay!

 

[BridgeSmith]

I'd be much more comfortable riding, or letting my kids ride, something that has a long successful history, rather than something new. Some of the new rides have had unforeseen bugs that take awhile to be discovered. The Mighty Axe in the Mall of America lost power during operation a couple months after opening. It stranded 30-some people upside down, nearly 40 feet in the air, for several hours. Could've been worse - at least it didn't free fall.

There's also the subject of this thread that is a prime example that new isn't always better, and can be much worse.

 

[IRstuff]

Most things adhere to the bathtub curve; lots of early issues, followed by a period of stable performance, followed by wear-out and fatigue issues. The slide in question never made it out of the first part of the bathtub curve.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[BridgeSmith]

With proper inspection, maintenance, and replacement of worn parts, amusement park rides never wear out, and ones that are properly designed maintain the stresses below the infinite fatigue life threshold will never fail due to fatigue. Leap-the-Dips has operated for over 100 years. Most of the steel coasters could operate virtually forever, with only replacing bearings, gears, motors, and other parts subject to wear. If that is done when required, they will be as safe to ride in 100 or 200 years as they were the day they opened.

 

[thebard3]

With proper inspection, maintenance, and replacement of worn parts,

That's the rub, sometimes. An 18 year old ride at the Ohio State Fair broke last year and 1 rider was killed with several injuries. Excessive corrosion was determined to be the cause, and it was not readily visible. UT or some other NDT method could have caught it, but it passed the normal inspection regimens right up until the moment it broke off.

Brad

It's all okay as long as it's okay.

 

[BridgeSmith]

That's a design and inspection issue, thebard3, not wear out or fatigue, which is what I took issue with. For the ride you mentioned, the detailing was poor in that respect, and consequently, proper inspection for it would need to be "UT or some other NDT method". Yes, I understand rides can fail at any time, but it is not a given that they have a finite life, or that they will eventually fail.