Reply to Boy Killed on Kansas Water Slide

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Not only that but there are plenty of YouTube videos showing kids on the ride with adults and the ride attendants casually shooting the breeze before the ride starts saying things like "it's not scary!" Nothing like skydiving or whatever where a trained professional rides with you and goes over what can go wrong and how to avoid that. It's a ride ins family park that was bound to kill someone and finally did due to some combination of faulty equipment + bad judgment. [/quote]

You have to watch a safety video at the bottom before you hike up the stairs.   [/quote]

One of the YouTube videos shows a small boy at the side, waiting for the next raft. He looks no older than 10, himself.  He then yells, "Hope you don't die!" to the adults waiting in the raft (guy in back must have a Go Pro on, since everything in front of him is being filmed).  The guy in the middle responds, "Me too!"  It's scary and weird to hear, considering the present circumstances.  Also, the netting and the frames that it is attached to, looks very close to the top of the riders' heads.  If poor Caleb flew from the front spot, directly into one of those frames, it is not surprising he was injured in such a horrific manner.

Finally, though, when all of that is said and done, the GoPro footage didn't appear to be all that scary or fast.  [b]The weight of the adult male riders distinctly slowed the raft down as it was going up the second hill.[/b] I have to imagine that Caleb's raft was seriously underweight and that his harness released.  If the Velcro had released on the front passenger in the YouTube video, he probably would've been fine (although it was clear that person was smaller).  Without any weight to hold the raft down, tragedy ensued.[/quote]

More weight doesn't slow you down on those rides. It makes you go faster and higher.[/quote]

Wow, no. You are not smart. [/quote]

I have exceeded the weight limit on a group ride on a waterslide.  We were way too high and too fast on the ride.  I won't repeat that again.

Schlitterbahn originally planned that the ride have a 1000 pound limit with 4 riders.  They reduced it to 450 and 3 riders, because at 1000 pounds the raft gets so much momentum going that it flies off the top of the second hill.  All of the energy that you expended hauling your butt up to the top of the ride is expended on the way down. More weight = more energy hauled to the top of the hill = more energy expended on the way down.

It really doesn't matter, though.  Riders average about 70 mph on that ride on the way down.  Whether the kid was going faster or slower, he was going fast enough to get killed.

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