Verrückt water slide decapitation
Verrückt water slide decapitation
(OP)
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
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





RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
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RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
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.
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
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.
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
Dan - Owner
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RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
At speeds of nearly 60 MPH I'm not surprised that the boats could become airborne and flip or rise.
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RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
The indictments go into some detail:
https://localtvwdaf.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/20...
https://localtvwdaf.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/in...
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
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.
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RicaXxiU1WM
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
Holy cow. Those guys need to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
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.
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RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
Can anybody shed some light on that process?
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
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.
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
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
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
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
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
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.
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
In some respects, they are way safer than the rides attached to the traveling circuses and shows. Just imagine a Tilt-a-Whirl that gets dismantled and mantled every week. In previous years, there were reports of deaths and injuries and even less oversight, since they're not permanent structures and switch towns, counties, and states on a moment's notice.
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RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
That would be the Tilt-a-Whirl whose otherwise inaccessible structural components get a weekly close-up, hands-on, inspection from somebody who knows how they are meant to go together and whose personal livelihood depends on the whole lot staying together when it's meant to.
A few years ago, I heard the (UK) HSE inspector responsible for fairground rides across the country saying that it was the fixed rides that always bothered him most.
One of my suppliers does a bit of hydraulic repair work for that industry and describes them (not, to be fair, his precise words) as very demanding customers.
A.
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
In dealing with these rides, I had to deal with many of the ride manufacturers. I was very surprised that some of the major ride manufacturers have NO engineering staff. At best they would have maybe an unlicensed mechanical engineer doing everything from the structure to the movement mechanisms, etc. One of the major coaster manufacturers in the US had exactly this setup. One of the European manufacturers had a PhD engineer who was a "captive consultant", but did other stuff as well. Almost everything was designed by trial and error, along with some good ol' boy 'speriance.
So this water slide design does not surprise me in the least.
IRstuff.....there are many of the older rides, such as the Tilt-a-Whirl, Scrambler and older Ferris Wheels that have performed many years with few problems. Some of the more recent ride designs have actually been more problematic in the transportable rides, including those such as the parachutes, Himalaya (and its theme variations), and the Orbitron. All of these rides are dynamic and subject to fatigue and the older rides were so overdesigned that fatigue was rarely an issue. Newer rides have been "optimized" in their design to the point that fatigue is a common concern. Transportable rides are subject to fatigue in their operation and in their transportation. The State of Florida has a requirement in their law (which we have tried to get removed because it doesn't make sense) to test for fatigue! Oh well....
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
Any idea which the 42 are?
Looks like Kansas isn't one of them.
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&a...
Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
You must write books on the side!
Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
See the chart in the link:
Comparison of State Ride Safety Regulations
RE: Verrückt water slide decapitation
See this in all kinds of places as "advanced analysis" becomes more integrated w/ design software...
Regards,
Mike
The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand