Boy was decapitated on waterslide park

KANSAS CITY, Kansas (AP): A 10-YEAR-OLD boy was decapitated as he rode a 168-foot-tall water slide at a water park in Kansas, a person familiar with the investigation said on Wednesday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they are is not authorised to speak about Caleb Schwab’s on death Sunday on the raft ride at the Schlitterbahn WaterPark in Kansas City, Kansas.

Two women who are not family members were in the raft at the time with the boy and were treated for facial injuries. The boy’s parents – Republican state Rep Scott Schwab and his wife, Michele – have requested privacy and have not spoken publicly since the death. His funeral is scheduled for Friday.

A spokeswoman for the waterpark yesterday declined to discuss the circumstances of the boy’s death. The Guinness World Records has certified the ride called ‘Verruckt’ – or German for ‘insane’ – as the tallest in the world.

The park reopened yesterday except for the sprawling section including the waterslide, although its towering profile greeted visitors as soon as they drove through the entrance.

Verruckt riders sit in multi-person rafts that begin with a steep drop, followed by a surge up a second hill before a 50-foot descent to a finishing pool. Each Verruckt rider must be at least 54 inches tall, and the combined body weight of the riders on each raft is limited to 400 to 550 pounds.

Riders are harnessed in with two nylon seatbeltlike straps – one that crosses the rider’s lap, the other stretching diagonally like a car shoulder seatbelt. Each strap is held in place by long Velcro-style straps, not by buckles. Riders also hang on to ropes inside the raft.

The water park passed a private inspection in June that included Verruckt, according to a document released by a Kansas state agency. The Kansas Department of Labor provided to the Associated Press on Wednesday a copy of an insurance company inspector’s June 7 letter saying inspections had been completed at Schlitterbahn Waterpark. The letter said all rides met guidelines for being insured with “no disqualifying conditions noted.”

Kansas law requires rides to be inspected annually by the parks, and the state randomly audits the records. The last records audit for Schlitterbahn was in June 2012.