World's tallest waterslide being built in U.S........

[korme]

Those sides are not tall enough. Never

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I'd rate the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the American Jazz Museum, and the World War I Museum as a trio of good reasons to go to KC (and, BBQ, of course) but it's a nice weekend destination not a full week one.

SI

Plaza, Sporting KC, and Royals are all good options as well.

Oh, and we have 16 wineries in the KC Metro area that all offer free wine tasting.

[britrock88]

Someone _will_ fly off the side of this thing. Still, I'd do it.

[Scarecrow]

Opens this Thursday!!!! USA Today is going live for the initial ride.

Get a bird's-eye view of the world's tallest water slide

(also new video)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Love that they flew a copter over the place to monitor test runs.

Schlitterbahn cancels Verruckt's media rides - KCTV5

[vex]

I assumed someone died since someone was posting on the opening day.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by vex

I assumed someone died since someone was posting on the opening day.

+1

SI

[EagleFan]

The comments from the company don't exactly inspire confidence.

[CU Tiger]

This is the third time that the official launch of Verruckt has been delayed.

Layne Pitcher, a spokesman for the water park, said officials do not have a new projected opening date.

This is the first time that a delay has occurred and officials did not offer a new launch date.

Great writing and editing there for sure.

[Julio Riddols]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

Great writing and editing there for sure.

I think they meant to say this is the first delay where a new date has not been given, but they certainly could have written that differently.

[PilotMan]

[CU Tiger]

That view looks much tamer than some of the Atlantis slides in Nassau

[sterlingice]

Watch The World's Tallest Water Slide Test Its First Human Riders

Oh, and don't worry about that video where the raft falls off the track and plunges to its doom.


SI

[PilotMan]

Gotta put this thing on here:

[Blackadar]

I'd so love to do that, but that would require me to go to Kansas City.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Watch The World's Tallest Water Slide Test Its First Human Riders

Oh, and don't worry about that video where the raft falls off the track and plunges to its doom.


SI

Camera battery dies?

Bullshit.

[tarcone]

They put up netting. Its safe now. *rolls eyes*

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by tarcone

They put up netting. Its safe now. *rolls eyes*

And it looks like they increased the amount of water slowing the raft down as it goes up the second hill.

[Wolfpack]

Originally Posted by tarcone

They put up netting. Its safe now. *rolls eyes*

It just means you'll permanently look like a waffle fry if you bounce wrong. Not sure that's better than outright dying by sailing off the slide.

[evil homer]

great article (IMO) on this slide plus the history of waterparks. a little long, but i enjoyed it.

The Wet Stuff: Jeff Henry, Verrukt, and the Men Who Built the Great American Waterpark – Grantland.com

[Ironhead]

Boy Killed in Accident on World's Tallest Waterslide at Kansas Park - NBC News

[Suicane75]

If only someone could have seen this coming.

[HerRealName]

I read that this ride used only velcro restraining straps. That is totally insane.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

I did one of those once at a park out in Palm Springs. You actually do lose contact with the slide (or it at least FEELS like it) at the very beginning. It's terrifying.

Never did it again.

I did this in Vegas and had the same experience. Did it a second time thinking the fear would be gone....but I guess that's just not for me! Scared the second time too. There are people that seem unphased by this stuff though.

[MizzouCowboy]

I rode the Verruckt less than a month ago, pretty sad to see this has happened. I did think as they were strapping me in - Velcro? Are you freaking kidding me? And damn worn out velcro at that?

The ride was intense. Scariest ride I've ever been on. Made me imagine what jumping from a tall building would be like... I crossed that out on my bucket list.

[tarcone]

A comment on a story said he was decapitated. Who knows. But with MC saying the worn out velcro, I can believe it.

[Easy Mac]

I hate water slides. Mainly because I'm terrified of heights. It's really more climbing the stairs. I actually rode my first legit water slide of my life yesterday. It was a raft on with my daughter and wife. We legit came within 3 feet of going up and over the edge on a turn. Needless to say, only psychos enjoy water slides.

I doove roller coasters though.

[digamma]

Wow, that is incredibly heartbreaking.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Likely a lawsuit here. They were knowingly running the ride despite some restraint harnesses not working.

˜Insane" tragedy: Kansas boy dies on world's tallest waterslide - The Washington Post

[larrymcg421]

Yeah this sounds like operator error. I also heard that the boy may not have been tall enough.

[tarcone]

I read an article that said they discontinued the height requirement. And at one point there was a 14 year old limit as well. And the stopped that.

The article says it isnt a family ride and is strictly for thrill seekers.

[stevew]

Why is this considered a waterslide instead of a log flume type ride?

[CU Tiger]

I just cant understand why you wouldn't have a longer runoff area and a taller decel hill It seems like engineering 101 failed these guys. There just sint enough scrub area to decel

[RainMaker]

How did he die on it? I see conflicting reports. Did he fly off the side? The fact they didn't even bother to resuscitate him sounds like however he died was extremely violent.

[JPhillips]

Sounds like he was either completely or mostly decapitated.

[Suicane75]

He flew up and hit something. Either the netting or a harder structure. From all I've gathered, it was pretty clear right away that he was dead, so yeah, major and immediate trauma of some sort.

[CU Tiger]

Follow the link above to the Washington Post article.
Midway down click on the Youtube ride along.
Check out the "netting" encapsulating the tube before they drop in up top.
Look at the pictures of what "netting" they removed.
How he died in painfully and grossly obvious...

[bhlloy]

Yeah - holy fucking shit. Nobody wants to live in a nanny state, but how that wasn't identified right away as a complete death trap I don't know. Sadly a light 10 year old and malfunctioning restraints was probably a perfect storm, but looking at that ride along something was inevitably going to happen eventually

[Suicane75]

Didn't really wanna look at that video but yeah, how could that not have been identified as a problem. You really think they'd take the ride along video down as well.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

More details in this article. The other two women on the article both received broken facial and jaw bone injuries. Feel so badly for these other two women that they had to be a part of this.

KCK police release details about water park tragedy; pastor provides statement on 10-year-old boy killed | fox4kc.com

Caleb was reportedly riding the slide with two adult women, with whom he was matched on the raft. The women are from north of Hays, Kan. One suffered a broken jaw, and the other a broken bone in her face and had to have stitches in her eye. The husband of one of the women says they are also suffering emotionally. He says the women do not know exactly what happened because it happened so fast. One of them had her eyes closed. One described it as the worst day of her life.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

dola

Stories starting to come out about similar experiences on the ride.

Family shares story of close call on Verruckt following 10-year-old’s tragic death on water slide | fox4kc.com

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

More details in this article. The other two women on the article both received broken facial and jaw bone injuries. Feel so badly for these other two women that they had to be a part of this.

KCK police release details about water park tragedy; pastor provides statement on 10-year-old boy killed | fox4kc.com

Didn't it have a minimum 400 lb total requirement? Certainly not making any judgment on women's weights if it wasn't an issue but it seems like two women and a 10 year old could very easily not crack that number.

[SackAttack]

The deceased child is the son of a Kansas lawmaker, and the park was celebrating "Elected Officials Day," and others were in attendance.

I mean, there's never a "good" time for a tragedy like this one, but that's got to be the all-time worst confluence of events for attracting the notice of people you'd rather not for reasons you'd rather not, hasn't it?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

The deceased child is the son of a Kansas lawmaker, and the park was celebrating "Elected Officials Day," and others were in attendance.

I mean, there's never a "good" time for a tragedy like this one, but that's got to be the all-time worst confluence of events for attracting the notice of people you'd rather not for reasons you'd rather not, hasn't it?

The irony being that the huge budget cuts that have been passed in the Kansas Legislature to make ends meet included cuts to, you guessed it, amusement part inspections.

Also, the family had not originally planned to go that day, but heard about the 'Elected Officials' day at church and decided to attend at the last minute.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

The irony being that the huge budget cuts that have been passed in the Kansas Legislature to make ends meet included cuts to, you guessed it, amusement part inspections.

all hail republican tax cut utopia

[QuikSand]

Not that it really matters, but good heavens...

The Associated Press on Twitter: "BREAKING: Person familiar with the investigation says 10-year-old boy who died on Kansas waterslide decapitated."

[Kodos]

I guess at least it was quick. What a way to go. Awful.

[JeeberD]

We're going to an amusement park later this week, and my wife is already nervous about our son going on rollercoasters and rides. I purposely didn't mention this story to her, but last night I came into our bedroom and she was bawling and said that she saw it in her Facebook feed. We'll see if I can convince her over the next couple of days that the odds of anything bad happening to us are minuscule...

[Easy Mac]

Tell her there's a better chance you'll get in a deadly crash on the way to the amusement park.

[dawgfan]

This kind of thing sure does shake one's faith that these rides are properly regulated.