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

 

[3DDave]

The question I have is that it appears no engineers were involved in building this. In many places a city will set up a fine and maybe a demolition order for a porch they don't approve. How did this guy get permits?

 

[ornerynorsk]

How did their insurance company permit them to operate this? When I think back about how I've had to step and fetch to meet insurance requirements on various projects over the years, this one flabbergasts me.

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.

 

[JStephen]

It's hard to get a complete picture here.
I would guess that engineers WERE involved- specifically involved in the structural design, to make sure it didn't fall over.
The problem wasn't there, it was on the functional aspect, of making sure that it was safe to ride.
I suppose there may be water park engineers that do that regularly, but I'm not so sure how I'd approach that from an engineering standpoint. Or I guess, my engineering judgement would say "don't go jumping off any 170' slide, it's not safe", which is not what they were after. Evidently, the problem in question was an erratic, not consistent, problem.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Any technical details on what happened? Ride came unseated, safety net strung too low, etc.?

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[LittleInch]

One of the reports said that there had been instances of the boats lifting off, presumably near the top of the second rise. Looking at the video in the msn link it seems that the strapped in rider hit the hoops on the top which were there to prevent boats shooting off completely. It seems those hoops and netting were an added feature when test runs showed that boats could fly off, especially if lightly loaded.

At speeds of nearly 60 MPH I'm not surprised that the boats could become airborne and flip or rise.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[kjoiner]

I saw a documentary on the water slide a few years ago. During the testing with sand bags, one of the rafts went airborne off the second hill, flew off to the side and free-fell to the ground. That prompted a "redesign" of the slide by raising the bottom of the first hill.

 

[Spartan5]

Any technical details on what happened? Ride came unseated, safety net strung too low, etc.?

The indictments go into some detail:

https://localtvwdaf.files.wordpress...21_indictment__miles_swkc__filed_redacted.pdf

https://localtvwdaf.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/indictment-against-jeff-henry.pdf

 

[ChadV]

Regarding the engineering, I read (either in a news story or in the indictment itself, I can't recall offhand) that an outside engineering company did the structural design, but the actual dynamics of the ride itself weren't really designed except by trial-and-error.

Another complication of this is that Schlitterbahn represents a whole bunch of individual sub-companies, one of which is its own general contractor who built the slide.

 

[JStephen]

Reminds me of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RicaXxiU1WM

 

[XR250]

The indictments go into some detail:

Holy cow. Those guys need to spend the rest of their lives in prison.

 

[Rabbit12]

XR250, I was just going to post this exact same thing. The blatant ignoring of safety issues as well as calculated cover-up after the fatal accident is almost unbelievable.

 

[JStephen]

Keep in mind that you're getting 100% one side of the story there, which can be pretty misleading in some cases.

 

[LittleInch]

This was a truly horrific incident - I can't imagine how the parents would have felt or the other riders.

The indictments are written in what seems like non legal language and for sure, represents the prosecution side, but the picture it paints is unfortunately believable. The lack of engineering design of the main ride features itself is the key to this. Designing by the seat of your pants and trial and error is not the way to design things where the general public are exposed to this level of risk.

I do wonder though what sort of licensing and oversight from local officials should have been or whether this sort of activity falls under the radar somehow. For this operation to be apparently self certified beggars belief.

Given the litigious nature in the US, I'm very surprised that some of the injuries listed in the indictment didn't result in large damages and law suits.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[ChadV]

Echoing LittleInch and others... I'm not an expert in this area by any means, but I wondered how this could have happened without a building authority stepping in. Given that there was a qualified structural engineer involved, is it just a case where the building department sees there are sealed structural drawings and doesn't ask about whether the ride itself was designed? I imagine your average building official doesn't deal with a lot of waterslides...

Can anybody shed some light on that process?

 

[XR250]

I love the statement in the indictment paragraph #32 . "obviously things do fall faster than Newton said" . !!

 

[JedClampett]

ChadV, you might be surprised how many areas, rural and not so rural, have no building authority. In those cases, the owner can do anything they want, only restricted by their insurers, the fire department (who sometimes will weigh in) and other risk management issues.
It makes common sense (at least to us) to have structures engineered, but it does cost money, both for the engineer and for any added money an engineered structure costs.

 

[bimr]

I do wonder though what sort of licensing and oversight from local officials should have been or whether this sort of activity falls under the radar somehow. For this operation to be apparently self certified beggars belief.

Amusement Park visitors assume that the rides are safe. Apparently not, and with little oversight. Verrückt is located in the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan. which is a separate smaller government agency (pop. 170,000) than Kansas City, MO (pop. 600,000). Kansas City, MO already has an amusement park and probably would have required more oversight.

"Federal officials don’t regulate water slides. State officials, ultimately guided by the elected politicians who were invited for a special day at the park when disaster struck, run on rules that allowed the slide to open in 2014 without a government oversight of its fundamental design.

The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan., largely evaluated Verrückt by whether it met local zoning and building codes.
Rather, the ultimate safety of the slide mostly began and ended with those inspired to build it.

Ride inspectors interviewed by The Star were reluctant to speak publicly for fear of alienating clients in the industry. They said insurers typically require a ride be erected, operated and maintained to a manufacturer’s specifications.

Most parks go to the Canadian design firms ProSlide and WhiteWater West to make their water slides. But in this case, as with nearly all with the New Braunfels, Texas-based company, Schlitterbahn was the manufacturer."


Newspaper Coverage



"In 1981, Congress passed legislation rescinding the CPSC’s authority over “permanent” rides, only allowing them to monitor temporary rides of the sort featured at pop-up carnivals and fairs.

Kansas, it will surprise no one to find out, isn’t exactly tough on theme parks. In an interview with USA Today in 2014, in fact, the Verruckt’s designer specifically cited the state’s lack of regulation regarding the height of rides as one reason the amusement park operator decided to place the world’s tallest water slide there. As for inspections, the state only requires an annual exam, one that is conducted privately and that the park doesn’t need to share with state authorities. There are no surprise spot checks, like there are in neighboring Missouri."

Water Park Regulations

 

[fel3]

ChadV…

In the early 1990s, a colleague told me a story about a similar lack of oversight he had recently encountered. The short version is this: My colleague walked into City Hall in a small mid-western city and asked something like, "My client wants to build a shopping center here, what are your requirements and procedures?" The woman at the counter handed my colleague a one-page form and asked him to fill it out. He did, and handed it back. She glanced over my colleague's form, then filled out a second one-page form and handed it to my colleague. He asked what this second form was, and she told him, "That's your building permit." No fees, no plan check, no nothing. And, my colleague's client didn't even own the property in question, but only had an option on it.

Having worked entirely in California for nearly 40 years and mostly on projects in California, I cannot fathom such a lax approach. But, it's apparently not uncommon.

-- Fred

==========
"Is it the only lesson of history that mankind is unteachable?"
--Winston S. Churchill

 

[ornerynorsk]

Still like this in many smaller towns throughout the Midwest. 15 years ago I had a mini-storage facility built for me. I was able to get the building permit AND have city council change zoning on the site before I even purchased the land from the then-owner, didn't even have the purchase agreement squared away yet. Permit was also a one page cursory form, no verifications of any kind, although the building system that I chose was an engineered building with stamped drawings and erected by a legit contractor, but it would have been just as easy not to. Building permit fee . . . $5.00. No lie. The cost of a Big Mac and a soda.

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.