Parents everywhere might want to think twice before they let one or more of their children get on a “thrill” ride at amusement parks or other places.
On Aug. 7, 10-year-old Caleb Schwab of Olathe, Kan., was killed while riding a water slide at the Schlitterbahn Water Park in Kansas City, Kan. It’s still not clear what happened, but Caleb’s neck was somehow broken. On the ride, a raft filled with three people plunges down a 169-foot-tall water slide – almost straight down. After that swift fall, with the raft moving at 65 mph, the water slide levels off, then shoots up to a tall height and then down again.
The water slide is dubbed “Verruckt,” which is German for “Insane.” Aptly named.
Caleb was the son of Kansas State Rep. Scott Schwab and his wife, Michele.
The day after the terrible accident, they released this heart-wrenching statement:
“Since the day he (Caleb) was born, he brought abundant joy to our family and all those he came in contact with. As we try to mend our home with him no longer with us, we are comforted knowing he believed in our savior Jesus, and they are forever together now. We will see him another day.”
What was a 10-year-old boy doing on such a terrifying ride?
The ride opened in 2014, and according to a report by USA Today, the water park’s co-owner took a ride on the slide and said this later: “I’m still recovering mentally. It’s like jumping off the Empire State Building. It’s the scariest thing I’ve done.”
Those are words not only from an adult but from the park’s co-owner. Did it ever occur to park owners that such a frightening ride could traumatize children, even it did not put them in physical danger, which obviously it did?
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, an average of 4.5 Americans have died every year on amusement-park rides from 1987-2000. Between the years 1994-2004, 22 Americans died gruesome deaths on roller-coaster rides alone due to mechanical failure or operator errors. Those death statistics do not even include the more than 1,204 injuries that occurred just in 2011 at 400 worldwide parks. Even some “less scary” rides have maimed or killed children.
A trade association for amusement parks claims the chance of an injury happening while riding rides is one in 9 million. Be that as it may, almost 4,500 children under 18 are injured in amusement park rides each year, most often because of improper restraints or padding. That’s too many children; one is too many.
Many children are naturally adventurous, ready to try anything that looks scary or thrilling. Most do not have an inkling of just how terrifying some of those thrill rides are, until they’re on them, when it’s too late to stop. Mental traumas can result.
Most parents can be reasonably assured their children will be safe on close-to-the-ground amusement rides such as merry-go-rounds or kiddie cars and for older children possibly a Ferris wheel. (Then again, maybe not. On Aug. 8, a Ferris wheel seat upended in Greenville, Tenn., sending three girls falling nearly 45 feet to the ground. Miraculously, thankfully, they survived, though injured.)
When it comes to giant roller coasters, water slides and other thrill-a-second rides, parents should not let children under 18 get on them, and amusement park owners should bar children from them, too. It’s surprising to think how many adults too scared to get on such thrill rides think nothing of letting their children get on them. It’s an awful way to become traumatized, to sustain injuries or to die. And such tragic outcomes can leave grieving parents in agony for the rest of their days.
