KS - Caleb Schwab, 10, dies on 17-story Schlitterbahn waterpark slide, Aug 2016

  • #521
I'm with you, it seems like common sense to me to not use a velcro strap for ride safety. I can't remember ever going on a ride, even a super tame one, that used velcro straps.

Me either. Who ever came up with the velcro strap idea must be lying in bed right now sweating and short of breath with the fear of what is to come in the future. What a stupid idea all the way around. The first time they saw that raft fly off the ramp in the trials they should have re-designed the whole thing.
 
  • #522
I see from the water park's webpage they have another raft ride for single riders that is enclosed with this net/ metal cage.....thingy.....what's up with that ? what is the netting for? To keep one from flying away?....
 
  • #523
Are y'all sure that this is a 17 story drop?

The picture doesn't seem that high. Jmo. I grew up in high rise apartments that went up to 40 floors. But 17 stories is still very very high.

That raft should have the bars that goes over your shoulders. Jmo. Especially for a skinny kid.

But I guess that kids smaller than him has been on the ride before.

So maybe it was the maintenance issues that took place on that particular day.

Idk.

But 17 stories is way tooo high for a drop like that in a raft that goes back up half ways to come back down with small young ones on board like that. Jmo
 
  • #524
Are y'all sure that this is a 17 story drop?

The picture doesn't seem that high. Jmo. I grew up in high rise apartments that went up to 40 floors. But 17 stories is still very very high.

That raft should have the bars that goes over your shoulders. Jmo. Especially for a skinny kid.

But I guess that kids smaller than him has been on the ride before.

So maybe it was the maintenance issues that took place on that particular day.

Idk.

But 17 stories is way tooo high for a drop like that in a raft that goes back up half ways to come back down with small young ones on board like that. Jmo
167 feet, 10 feet per story, so they rounded up but, yes, it's up there. Here's a link with a video that starts with a view from the top. 😨

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article95562432.html

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  • #525
I see from the water park's webpage they have another raft ride for single riders that is enclosed with this net/ metal cage.....thingy.....what's up with that ? what is the netting for? To keep one from flying away?....

the cage/netting is not only for riders safety, it is to keep animals and debris off the ride, i have twice witnessed a roller coaster hitting a seagull and a turkey on the track, and it aint prety.....what a mess that was,
 
  • #526
the cage/netting is not only for riders safety, it is to keep animals and debris off the ride, i have twice witnessed a roller coaster hitting a seagull and a turkey on the track, and it aint prety.....what a mess that was,

I honestly cant recall ever seeing a roller coaster encased by any type of netting. And wouldn't ride in one if it were, on the off chance the coaster stalled and I had to be rescued off the coaster.

Fwiw, They didn't put that netting there to keep turkeys off the track, lol. It was their lame excuse of a safety device, when instead they should have had the rafts on rails and shoulder bars, like a coaster, to hold passengers in, and without that pathetic netting. JMO
 
  • #527
I honestly cant recall ever seeing a roller coaster encased by any type of netting. And wouldn't ride in one if it were, on the off chance the coaster stalled and I had to be rescued off the coaster.

Fwiw, They didn't put that netting there to keep turkeys off the track, lol. It was their lame excuse of a safety device, when instead they should have had the rafts on rails and shoulder bars, like a coaster, to hold passengers in, and without that pathetic netting. JMO

Visions of Fabio...

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  • #528
  • #529
I had velcro straps on my shoes once. They worked perfectly fine when wet.

That’s a bad analogy. Would you trust your life to the velcro straps on your shoes? Would you hang upside down from a crane, secured only by the wet velcro straps on your shoes? I doubt you would, unless you have a death wish. Using velcro to tie your shoes, and using it as a safety belt are two extremely different things. I’m pretty sure that if any automobile manufacturer applied to the US Department of Transportation, to replace buckle seat belts, with velcro straps, the answer would be, hell no. No way is velcro secure enough to be used as a passenger restrain device. It’s not allowed to be used in cars, and it should not be allowed to be used on amusement park rides.
 
  • #530
AND BY THE WAY...what did these rocket scientists THINK was going to happen when the raft lifted up into the netting? Where were the faces of the occupants in the raft going to be if the raft raised up off the slide and into the netting?

I agree, don’t most similar rides use fiberglass tubes instead of netting? Everything about Schlitterbahn’s safety, screams cheapness to me. Velcro straps instead of safety belts, nets instead of fiberglass tubes. It sounds like they spend almost zero on safety equipment.
 
  • #531
I agree, don’t most similar rides use fiberglass tubes instead of netting? Everything about Schlitterbahn’s safety, screams cheapness to me. Velcro straps instead of safety belts, nets instead of fiberglass tubes. It sounds like they spend almost zero on safety equipment.

IMO, hitting a fiberglass tube at 70 mph would likely be fatal as well. The "boats" should have been secured such that they were unable to lift off the track.

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  • #532
IMO, hitting a fiberglass tube at 70 mph would likely be fatal as well. The "boats" should have been secured such that they were unable to lift off the track.

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But then it wouldn't be a water slide and they wouldn't have the record for the world's tallest.

Which was the whole point in building the danged thing.
 
  • #533
But then it wouldn't be a water slide and they wouldn't have the record for the world's tallest.

Which was the whole point in building the danged thing.
Well, they could have made it far less steep and not put the second hill in. Actually, it was pretty much that hill that was the problem. Without that hill, it still would have been the tallest, and it would have been much, much safer. These yahoos decided they wanted to do something new and different, when they didn't have the knowledge needed to do it.

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  • #534
That’s a bad analogy. Would you trust your life to the velcro straps on your shoes? Would you hang upside down from a crane, secured only by the wet velcro straps on your shoes? I doubt you would, unless you have a death wish. Using velcro to tie your shoes, and using it as a safety belt are two extremely different things. I’m pretty sure that if any automobile manufacturer applied to the US Department of Transportation, to replace buckle seat belts, with velcro straps, the answer would be, hell no. No way is velcro secure enough to be used as a passenger restrain device. It’s not allowed to be used in cars, and it should not be allowed to be used on amusement park rides.

Slightly OT, if you've had surgery in the last couple decades you were Velcro-d to the table. Now of course this does not approach the forces that develop in a vehicle accident or amusement park ride....
 
  • #535
  • #536
Slightly OT, if you've had surgery in the last couple decades you were Velcro-d to the table. Now of course this does not approach the forces that develop in a vehicle accident or amusement park ride....

Completely OT: I'm going to file that away in the "things I wish I didn't know" category. Lol - I don't know why that freaks me out, but it kind of does.
 
  • #537
Completely OT: I'm going to file that away in the "things I wish I didn't know" category. Lol - I don't know why that freaks me out, but it kind of does.
Usually you're out already when they do it. But it is disturbing if you're still awake! (I woke up in the middle of that one, too!😨 but they put me back under pretty fast!)

More disturbing... they usually put a tube down your throat as well.

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  • #538
Usually you're out already when they do it. But it is disturbing if you're still awake! (I woke up in the middle of that one, too!�� but they put me back under pretty fast!)

More disturbing... they usually put a tube down your throat as well.

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Ah, Wyle E, you, me, and the Versed!

Asked the anesthesiologist a question after surgery, the response was "Um, yeah, but you're not supposed to remember that!"
 
  • #539
Ah, Wyle E, you, me, and the Versed!

Asked the anesthesiologist a question after surgery, the response was "Um, yeah, but you're not supposed to remember that!"


Shhhhhh!! You two are freakin me out!
 
  • #540

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