KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – A 168-foot-tall Kansas waterslide on which a state lawmaker’s 10-year-old son was killed last summer will be demolished once the unfolding investigation of the tragedy is finished, the water park’s operators said.
Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts and the family that runs it said in a statement Tuesday that the “Verruckt” ride at the Schlitterbahn park in Kansas City, Kansas, will be permanently removed from its tower “once the investigation is concluded and we are given permission by the court.”
“In our opinion, it is the only proper course of action following this tragedy,” the statement read, adding that “all of us at Schlitterbahn have been heartbroken over the tragedy that occurred on Verruckt.”
Billed as the world’s tallest waterslide, Verruckt has been closed since Caleb Thomas Schwab died on the ride Aug. 7. The boy was decapitated in the accident, a person familiar with the investigation previously told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because that person was not authorized to speak publicly about the boy’s death.
Two women in the raft with Caleb were injured.