Warning: Sensitive Content.
On August 7, 2016 the Scwab family changed forever.
What started as a beautiful day out, soon turned to one of complete unforeseeable horror.
The Schwab family had headed out to the Schlitterbahn Waterpank in Kansas when little Caleb Schwab, who was just ten at the time, said he wanted to go on the world’s tallest waterslide, Verrukt.
The ride is taller than the Niagra Falls and translates from German meaning ‘insane’.
Caleb, despite weighing only 34kg was allowed to sit in the front of the raft with two people sitting behind him.
However, Caleb should have been told to sit in the middle.
The other two passengers, two women, weighed 125kg and 89kg, creating an uneven weight distribution.
When they were going down the slide, at speeds of up to 70mph, the raft was sent airbourne as it ascended the rides second hump.
Caleb was thrown into the netting and decapitated by the metal wiring. The other two women were also injured.
An investigation into the tragedy found numerous flaws in the management and design of the waterslide which, should they have been avoided, would have saved Caleb’s life.
While there are many victims in this story, one who was left extremely traumatised was Caleb’s older brother, Nathan, who had the job of explaining to his parents what he had just seen.
The mother of the boys, Michelle Schwab, told ABC News: “[Nathan] was screaming, ‘He flew from the Verrückt, he flew from the Verrückt’.”
Waterpark staff reportedly heard a loud boom and rushed to the ride whey found Caleb’s body at the bottom of the slide.
Michelle added that: “There was a gentleman who wouldn’t allow me to come close enough to see what was going on, and he just kept saying, ‘Trust me, you don’t want to go any further’. I kind of knew in my mind that I shouldn’t see it, that I probably don’t want to see it.”
It was then that Scott Schwab asked one of the employees to tell him if his son had died and he was told the awful news.
So tragic.
Rest in peace.
