At nearly 169 feet tall, Verrückt—which means “insane” in German—was taller than Niagara Falls. Riders flew down the world's tallest water slide at 70 miles per hour, challenging the laws of physics. The attraction was the pride and joy of Schlitterbahn Water Park in Kansas City. Then, on August 7, 2016, Verrückt came to a swift end when 10-year-old Caleb Schwab was decapitated on the ride. What went wrong to cause such a horrific tragedy?
I don't know about anyone else but there's something about water slides that scare the crap out of me. I will ride almost any roller coaster but water slides feel like they don't have as much in place to keep you in place. In the video, they show a lot of the failures in testing the slide. It seems like there's a fine line between the raft flying off the slide and it not making it over the hill. Another point they try to make is there were very relaxed safety measures in place to test and maintain the slide's safety. Such a shame that this young boy died in a tragic manner.