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Settlements Reached in Deadly Verrückt Water Slide Accident


— April 14, 2017

After being injured in the deadly water slide accident that claimed the young life of a state lawmaker’s 10-year-old son, two sisters have finally agreed to a settlement with the owner of the Schlitterbahn Water Park.


After being injured in the deadly water slide accident that claimed the young life of a state lawmaker’s 10-year-old son, two sisters have finally agreed to a settlement with the owner of the Schlitterbahn Water Park.

According to attorney Lynn Johnson, the settlement was agreed to out-of-court, though she wouldn’t “reveal details of the settlement.” Similarly, the names of the two sisters have not been released to the public. However, in a statement to 41 Action News, Johnson said her “clients feel good about Schlitterbahn’s action concerning Verruckt.”

Image of the Verrückt Water Slide
Verrückt Water Slide; Image Courtesy of ABC News, http://abcnews.go.com/

For those who don’t know, the accident that injured the sisters occurred back on August 10 when Kansas State Representative, Scott Schwab and his family visited the water park for a day of fun. While there, Schwab’s 10-year-old son, Caleb, decided to ride the Verrückt, “German for crazy or insane.” It’s known as the world’s tallest water slide, and after only moments on the ride, Caleb was tragically killed in an accident.

In addition to the sister’s settlement, the Schwab family also settled with “two companies associated with constructing the water slide — Henry & Sons Construction and National Aquatics Safety Company.” Details of those settlements have also been kept under wraps.

According to 41 Action News, these settlements come days after the Kansas legislature passed a bill toughening up the law on amusement ride inspections. But what went wrong to cause such an accident? Unfortunately, that’s still up in the air. For now, a Schlitterbahn spokeswoman claimed the park is “still waiting to hear from the court to allow them to take down the slide,” something they want to do “as soon as possible.”

As for a formal investigation into what happened, well, the “case has gone from Kansas City, Kansas Police Department to the Wyandotte County district attorney and now sits in the office of the Kansas attorney general.” At the moment, there is no word or timeline indicating when an investigation will be completed.

Sources:

Sisters injured in fatal Schlitterbahn water park accident reach settlement

Two sisters injured on world’s tallest waterslide in Kansas that decapitated politician’s 10-year-old son reach a settlement

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