Ten-year-old Caleb Schwab was tragically decapitated in 2016 while riding the Verrückt water slide, the tallest in the world at 168 feet, at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City.
Caleb struck a metal pole after being flung from the slide by its force. “He flew from the Verrückt!” exclaimed his 12-year-old brother Nathan, who was waiting at the bottom, as he saw the horror.
Later, the Schwab family settled with the park’s former owners and pursued legal action against the company that built the slide.
While expressing sadness over the incident, Schlitterbahn Waterpark emphasized that visitor safety had always come first. In 2018, the water park closed.
The loss experienced by the Schwab family is unfathomable, and the tragedy is still unthinkable. Caleb, may you rest in peace.