Accidental death at Schlitterbahn in Kansas City.

[robbalvey]

I don't know what's worse.... people on our forum pretending to be engineers posting total crap and expecting other people to discuss their drivel, or articles like this written by people who know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the theme park industry trying to convince their readers that they are experts and know more about the subject than the people who built it. I hate articles like this, but they actually make our dumbest posters here look good: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article95562432.html

Edited August 14, 2016 by robbalvey

[Kinematics]

I don't know what's worse.... people on our forum pretending to be engineers posting total crap and expecting other people to discuss their drivel, or articles like this written by people who know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the theme park industry trying to convince their readers that they are experts and know more about the subject than the people who built it. I hate articles like this, but they actually make our dumbest posters here look good: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article95562432.html

 

My favorite part of the article is the high school physics video, which disregards physics and engineering being two disciplines with two different goals.

[Philrad71]

I was surprised to not see stick figure riders in that video flying out of the raft.

 

That whole article was one hot mess...including the audio/interview starting during the Geico spam add. The media anymore....just wow.

[Henry M]

I don't know what's worse.... people on our forum pretending to be engineers posting total crap and expecting other people to discuss their drivel, or articles like this written by people who know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the theme park industry trying to convince their readers that they are experts and know more about the subject than the people who built it. I hate articles like this, but they actually make our dumbest posters here look good: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article95562432.html

 

Yeah, this even makes some of my stuff seem intelligent. We really need to wait for a full investigation rather than randomly speculating. We will find out sooner or later what happened, like with the Smiler, we will have to wait but it will at least it will be clear.

[Philrad71]

^ You are 100% right, Henry - at least we are used to your "interesting" posts and we often find plenty of humor (or humour) in them!

 

Why, here's one right here...

 

we will have to wait but it will at least it will be clear.

[canadianparkfan]

Holy sh*t we don't even know if the accident had anything to do with the buckles. We're spending way too much time discussing something that (aside from one or two first hand reports from pervious rides that are almost never reliable) you guys just entirely made up.

(shhhhhhh! This thread is doing wonders for our post count this month!)

[Living_Dead]

lmao though, most of the people complaining about the buckles probably haven't ridden this contraption. I know I haven't.

 

I mean like, why must people always play the blame game whenever a tragedy occurs? Let the officials do their job, and wait for an answer. It's not only disrespectful to the park, the engineers, and your post count - but it's also not respectful to the family. They probably are looking for honest and true results to find out what happened and who is at fault, and all these "know-it-all" responses aren't helping anyone out.

 

Just gonna put my two cents in.

[Philrad71]

^ And then call a lawyer.

[Kinematics]

^ And then call a lawyer.

 

^ And then go to McDonald's!

[Henry M]

^ You are 100% right, Henry - at least we are used to your "interesting" posts and we often find plenty of humor (or humour) in them!

 

Why, here's one right here...

 

we will have to wait but it will at least it will be clear.

Grammar on point there!

(Note to self...stop being dumb)

[IdahoKat]

Caleb's death was so very tragic and life ended so soon. The only "good" things I see about it - he died while having a fun day, doing something he enjoyed. It also sounds like his death was so instant, that hopefully he did not suffer. Who wouldn't want to die while doing something they enjoy, rather than from disease, abuse, etc.

[IdahoKat]

People keep talking about the Intamin seat belt connection system, well here is a big shock to you all, the belt is not made by Intamin!

 

I for one, fell out of seat from the shock. That was indeed shocking.

 

Excellent detective work, Watson, please inform the authorities. Once again, tell the receptionist that you're a member of Theme Park Review and while you're aware of their investigation, a bunch of 14-year-olds who've never been to the park on the internet are performing a parallel investigation and they've narrowed it down to the airplane and parachute seatbelts.

 

Feel free to drop in your post count, coaster count and that you have experience building water slides in Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 if they're still skeptical. They'll put you right through to the investigation team and will probably want to set up a conference call.

 

Don't actually call anyone. People are so stupid I feel like I actually need to clarify this.

 

Your response just made me literally LOL Nicely worded

Edited August 14, 2016 by robbalvey

[robbalvey]

I don't know what's worse.... people on our forum pretending to be engineers posting total crap and expecting other people to discuss their drivel, or articles like this written by people who know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the theme park industry trying to convince their readers that they are experts and know more about the subject than the people who built it. I hate articles like this, but they actually make our dumbest posters here look good: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article95562432.html

 

Yeah, this even makes some of my stuff seem intelligent.

Don't give yourself too much credit.

[Henry M]

I don't know what's worse.... people on our forum pretending to be engineers posting total crap and expecting other people to discuss their drivel, or articles like this written by people who know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the theme park industry trying to convince their readers that they are experts and know more about the subject than the people who built it. I hate articles like this, but they actually make our dumbest posters here look good: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article95562432.html

 

Yeah, this even makes some of my stuff seem intelligent.

Don't give yourself too much credit.

Lol

[DavidW]

doesn't sound like overall weight was an issue: http://www.wowt.com/content/news/Police-weights-in-water-park-death-within-limits-390254271.html

[amy_mel]

I'm not super familiar with the ride so forgive this if it's a silly question. Is it a requirement to have 3 riders? I'm asking because if the weights that are reported as being taken at the hospital are correct, the 2 adults would have been 472 lbs by themselves, putting then right about at the middle of the weight range. I'm trying to grasp why they put Caleb on that raft and push it to the upper weight limit.

[Ed Farmer]

^ And then call a lawyer.

While tweeting a selfy and watching brain-eating reality tv.

[coasterbill]

I'm not super familiar with the ride.

 

Don't worry. Most of the people performing the "TPR parallel investigation" in this thread aren't familiar with it either but that hasn't stopped them.

 

Anyway, that's not a silly question at all. Actually it's a total reasonable question so it seems a little out-of-place in this thread. The website says 2-3 riders so it doesn't seem like they require 3, but maybe someone who frequents the park can shed some light on how they generally operate it.

[DoinItForTheFame]

I'm not super familiar with the ride so forgive this if it's a silly question. Is it a requirement to have 3 riders? I'm asking because if the weights that are reported as being taken at the hospital are correct, the 2 adults would have been 472 lbs by themselves, putting then right about at the middle of the weight range. I'm trying to grasp why they put Caleb on that raft and push it to the upper weight limit.

 

 

3 Riders is not a requirement. 2 riders is. However it could have been something as simple as "We have 2 riders, and he is a single rider. We can put him with them, and the weight limit will still be okay, so let's do it." If they had made a reservation, and he were in the "walk up line" they could have paired them up that way they were giving as many people a chance to ride the ride as they could, and all the requirements were still met.

[amy_mel]

That makes total sense. Popular attraction that draws enough to make a reservation system necessary. So let's move as many people as we can within the guidelines. I'll be interested to see what if any details they release as to the cause.

[DoinItForTheFame]

Sounds like the injuries to the ladies who were also in the raft were a little more severe than we (or at least I) first thought.

 

As one of the women's husbands explained, one passenger broke her jaw and had to get eight stitches on her chin, and is still waiting to find out if she will need to get her jaw wired shut or if it will be able to heal properly on its own. The other woman received a fracture on her cheekbone, bruising to her eyeball, and had to get five stitches over her left eye.

 

They are also not yet ready to talk about what they experienced and saw on the ride itself.

 

Source.

[robbalvey]

Wow. So it would appear that Schlitterbahn has released a statement and the ride will be closed and removed.

 

https://www.facebook.com/notes/schlitterbahn-kansas-city/statement-regarding-verr%C3%BCckt/1265465546846187

[ZambeziZinger]

It was really the only course of action that made sense. Very unfortunate that it happened in the first place. Maybe a MASSIV type ride would be a good replacement.

[coasterbill]

I was shocked by this for a minute until I noticed the wording of this...

 

Verrückt will be decommissioned – closed permanently and the slide removed from the tower. In our opinion, it is the only proper course of action following this tragedy.

 

We will, at some point in the future, announce what will be built in its place.

 

If they're leaving the tower in place then in a few years it sounds like they'll just build a new slide with a new name that won't have the same tarnished name and press associated with it. If they build a tube or body slide without a hill it would probably still be just as marketable.

 

This is a very smart move by the park in my opinion.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

This really isn't surprising. It had that reputation of being edgy and intense, and it just seemed like that never really resonated anyway. It'd be different if this was a beloved slide, but it really wasn't. It seems like Schlitterbahn was counting on Verruckt to bring the people in, but it had such a limited appeal that it didn't really help in that aspect.

 

I know the Texas Schlitterbahns have a great reputation, but I've looked into going here, and it's just hard to justify when Oceans of Fun is right across town. There really isn't anything at Schlitterbahn that Oceans of Fun doesn't have already. The biggest problem is that Schlitterbahn doesn't have nearly enough things for little kids to do. OoF's three children's splash areas are a very compelling argument. This accident cannot be good at all for them when they face such strong competition, but I wish them well. Personally what would get me to go there would be more children's activities and more tube slides that we can enjoy as a family. I know a lot of you enthusiasts go nuts over the "MOAR INTENZZZZ" rides, but something not so intimidating that my 9-year-old will be afraid to go on it is what will actually sell 5 tickets. Sorry guys, we're just the target demographic for these places.