Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
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Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#2Surprised the park hasn't gone totally bankrupt from the amount of class-action suits available here.
Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#3Ugh, it says they rushed the design and build in order to impress a Travel Channel show/producer..
(Not putting this at the feet of the TV channel, just so insanely wrong priorities on the part of the park)
Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#4The full indictment [1] is well worth reading. The most relevant sections for HN, in my opinion:
> 35. [Designer Jeffrey] HENRY compared the construction of Verrückt to an arms race against rival waterparks.
> 37. HENRY admitted that he was ignoring established industry safety standards because he felt he could redefine those standards with his own achievements. While describing his vision of how Verrückt would change the industry, HENRY explained, "[W]e're going to set the standards up, and set the education up, and we're gonna redefine many of the definables that have been defined in the industry that we couldn't find good reasons for."
Also check out paragraphs 85-89 for some incredibly unethical behavior on the part of one of Schlitterbahn's attorneys.
[1]: https://www.wycocourtks.org/uploads/4/4/1/2/4412070/2018-03-...
Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#5From the indictment:
19. HENRY and SCHOOLEY lacked the technical expertise to properly design a
complex amusement ride such as Verrückt. Neither of the two men possessed any
kind of technical or engineering credential relevant to amusement ride design or
safety. As SCHOOLEY admitted, "If we actually knew how to do this, and it could
be done that easily, it wouldn't be that spectacular."
http://www.kansascity.com/latest-news/article206611679.ece/B...
Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#6I was reading a story about how this was built by unqualified engineers and I was really confused how that happened, but a quick summary:
The owners of this park have a long history of building and operating water parks in general, with the specialty of "lazy river" type infinite pool rides.
This extreme ride is a very different piece of work and gets into the "roller coaster" design which is a whole different piece of engineering.
Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#7If I’m reading this correctly, the ride opened in 2014 but the kid was decapitated in 2016. So not only did they rush its construction but they had two years to fix it and chose not to. Incredible.
Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#8From the indictment: 19. HENRY and SCHOOLEY lacked the technical expertise to properly design a complex amusement ride such as Verrückt. Neither of the two men possessed any kind of technical or engineering credential relevant to amusement ride design or safety. As SCHOOLEY admitted, "If we actually knew how to do this, and it could be done that easily, it wouldn't be that spectacular." Full text: http://www.kansasci…
so basically, they were doing water slide _research_ instead of water slide _engineering_
Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#9if you search "verruckt" on youtube there's a number of point-of-view camera recordings of people riding the thing, before it was shut down.
reading the indictment, it seems like the general sort of design that could be implemented safely if they had just hired a ride-engineer with expertise in dynamic forces.
the main problem looks like they were sending rafts with unspecified weights down the chute. overly light rafts would catch air on the second hill and slam into the overhead netting (which is what killed the boy). secondary and tertiary problems were poor raft design (see sections about other injuries to riders) and insufficiently long run-out/braking area at the end.
the use of velcro as a restraint is scary as hell. particularly if you know how quickly velcro wears out after several hundred attachments/detachment cycles.
Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#10The full indictment [1] is well worth reading. The most relevant sections for HN, in my opinion: > 35. [Designer Jeffrey] HENRY compared the construction of Verrückt to an arms race against rival waterparks. > 37. HENRY admitted that he was ignoring established industry safety standards because he felt he could redefine those standards with his own achievements. While describing his vision of how Verrückt would chang…
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