Authorities have closed the world’s tallest water slide after a 10-year-old boy was killed on the 17-storey ride on Sunday.
Police have confirmed that Caleb Schwab, the son of a Kansas state politician, was killed after sustaining a fatal “neck injury” while on the 51 metre Verruckt slide at Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas City.
Tweets below illustrate what the ride looks like.
A witness to the tragedy has revealed some of the gruesome details surrounding the boy’s death.
Esteban Castaneda, who was at the waterpark at the time of the incident said there were several loud bangs that came from the ride before a body washed down the slide after a raft, reported ABC7.
Castaneda said a lifeguard was trying to control the crowd as he tried to help but soon it seemed apparent that the boy had been decapitated.
Castaneda also said that he and his 14-year-old cousin had ridden the slide earlier that day and the teenager had told him that toward the end of the ride his velcro belt had come undone.
PEOPLE reports that the two women in the boat with Caleb – neither related to him – suffered minor facial injuries.
“There was a woman being treated for some kind of injury on her face and head,” witness Kelsey Friedrichsen, 27, told PEOPLE. “That was when my boyfriend said, ‘I think there is someone else.'”
What her boyfriend, Josh Foster said first responders covering the body of Caleb.
“It looked like he must have somehow been ejected from his seat, bounced around between the netting and the slide and just slid down,” Friedrichsen said. “He would have fallen down without the raft. It’s kind of like a tube.”
Verruckt was certified as the world’s tallest water slide by Guinness World Records – the water park’s website reportedly said riders had to be at least 54 inches (137 centimetres tall) to get on the slide.
Caleb’s parents, Kansas State legislator Scott Schwab and his wife, Michele, released a statement on Sunday night remembering their freckle-faced little boy.
“Since the day he was born, he brought abundant joy to our family and all those who he came into contact with,” the Schwabs’ said.
“As we try and mend our home with him no longer with us, we are comforted knowing he believed in his saviour, Jesus, and they are forever together now. We will see him another day.”
A Schlitterbahn spokeswoman, Winter Prosapio, said the park had been shut down indefinitely and “a full investigation” is underway.
“We honestly don’t know what’s happened,” Prosapio told the Kansas City Star.
“That’s why a full investigation is necessary. We have to understand what’s happened. The Fire Department, of course, is here. (An) outside, inside investigation will be underway, and it will be a complete one… To be honest, this is not something we’ve experienced.”
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