Kansas lawmaker's son killed on world's largest water slide

[old_tony]

The details I've been able to find are quite gruesome. The two girls who were in that raft with the kid are probably scarred for life. I read that they were just covered in blood.

 

[terrier]

Some things in this world just can't be sanitized.

Hey man, nice shot.

 

[qtlaw]

Oh man I literally jumped and shook when you said kid's injury. So wrong. May he RIP.

 

[exmediahack]

We've driven by it a few times since it opened. I love water parks. I love straight down water slides but this one has always struck me as one that pushes the physics too far.

Perhaps that's why they opened it in Kansas and not Missouri. Looser regulations.

 

[Ace]

I must have read a really sanitized version of the story, because I could not understand what happened, why there was blood on a waterslide and why the EMT folks assumed the boy was dead when they first saw him.

I guess this explains that.

 

[poindexter]

This is one Taiwanese recreation video they don't need to make.

 

[Roscablo]

Mainstream media is starting to report he was indeed decapitated. ABC news had one yesterday attributing it to a witness and now the AP is using an anonymous source close to the investigation.

There was a lot of that on Twitter right away, including some local media, but it seemed a lot of them took it down or went away from it. Don't quite understand why, as much as any of us don't want it to be true, that they'd do that.

There still is a lack of details of how it happened. Most popular thought is the raft went airborne and the netting caused it.

Sounds like the ride was a mess from the start. Just dumb luck it took two years to happen?

 

[SpeedTchr]

I read a couple places about the raft not meeting the minimum weight requirement for safety.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I read a couple places about the raft not meeting the minimum weight requirement for safety.

I've also read that the minimum age for the ride is supposed to be 14, and that there were minimum height and weight rules that the kid didn't meet.

Also read that originally, the ride was designed without a net. They tested it with straw dummies and they flew off the raft.

 

[Hokie_pokie]

I read a couple places about the raft not meeting the minimum weight requirement for safety.

Yes in order to keep the raft from going airborne, you need the occupants to meet a minimum weight threshold.

I saw something on Today before the ride was getting ready to open. Looks scary as heck.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Party and rental company owner weighs in on Kansas regulations

For every state Wilson rents or operates in, he has to fulfill those requirements.

"Kansas is very lax," he said. "They just say you're obligated to keep records, you're obligated to inspect. You have a responsibility to inspect, which is, in my opinion, barely a minimum to even come close to."

 

[Dick Whitman]

Why do we always find out about lax regulations AFTER something happens?