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The 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…
Move fast and break things!
Surprised the park hasn't gone totally bankrupt from the amount of class-action suits available here.
If 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.
You decide whether that's better or worse...
The 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…
if 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 ra…
Surprised the park hasn't gone totally bankrupt from the amount of class-action suits available here.
This is in Kansas, where most folks aren't as sue-happy as the coasts of our country. Out here, if you get a minor injury, rub some dirt on it and treat it like a hill - get over it.
Maybe if Kansans held each other to higher standards of accountability they wouldn't kill a kid on a water slide.
if 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 ra…
From 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_
Don't test in production. Or with human lives.
We need to hold ourselves to at least this good a standard.