Child’s death at Kansas Schlitterbahn water park investigated
EP4PRO, August 8th, 2016, in ep4records
(CNN)Kansas state police are investigating the death of a child Sunday on a water slide at the Schlitterbahn water park.
The boy died while riding the Verrckt, the world’s tallest water slide, said spokeswoman Winter Prosapio.
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The park in Kansas City, Kansas, has been closed for the investigation, she said.
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No other details were immediately released about the child.
Thousands of children are hurt annually on amusement rides, according to a
2013 study by the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, which examined data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Head and neck injuries were the most common at 28%, with 1.5% of the injuries requiring hospitalization, the study said.
Consumer Product Safety Commission statistics for 2015 are not available, but a review of the raw data
found 45,000 injuries associated with amusement rides and water slides nationwide; about 30,000 of these cases involved those under age 18.
Verrckt, 17 stories high — higher than Niagara Falls — propels riders at 50 mph. It’s name translates as “insane” in German.
Its height of 168 feet 7 inches is 5 feet taller than the previous record holder, a water slide at a Rio de Janeiro country club. Verrckt
was built in Kansas City because it didn’t have a height restriction, its designer designer John Schooley told CNN when it opened in July 2014.
Jeff Henry, owner of Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts, was at a trade show and decided he wanted to build the tallest, fastest water slide at one of his five Schlitterbahn water parks, Schooley said.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/07/us/kansas-schlitterbahn-water-park-child-death/index.html
