What was meant to be a fun family day turned into an unimaginable tragedy when 10-year-old Caleb Schwab took a ride on the world’s tallest waterslide.
The ride, Verrückt, meaning “Insane” in German, featured an almost vertical 17-story drop, taller than Niagara Falls. Caleb and his family visited Schlitterbahn Waterpark on August 7, 2016, as part of an “Elected Officials Day.”
During the ride’s second drop, Caleb’s raft became airborne, sending him into metal supports covered with nets above the slide. Tragically, this resulted in Caleb’s death.
His father, Scott, recalled telling Caleb and his other son, Nathan, to stick together. However, staff separated the brothers before the ride. Nathan was the one who later informed his parents of Caleb’s tragic death.
Nathan’s mother, Michelle Schwab, remembered the chaos, as Nathan screamed, “He flew from the Verrückt, he flew from the Verrückt.” A bystander tried to prevent her from getting too close, telling her, “Trust me, you don’t want to go any further.” Michelle knew deep down she shouldn’t see it.
Scott Schwab expressed the pain of losing a child, saying, “Six went to the park and five came back,” adding he couldn’t even recall driving home after the tragedy.
A 2019 documentary revealed that safety concerns were overlooked during the ride’s design. Nathan Truesdell, the documentary maker, shared that there was little engineering involved, with sandbags used to test the slide’s safety. The netting added later to prevent rafts from flying off the ride ultimately led to Caleb’s death.
The ride’s creator, Jeff Henry, had no formal engineering background, which contributed to the tragic accident. Despite safety concerns, the ride opened in 2014 after a two-year delay.
A grand jury initially brought second-degree murder charges against Schlitterbahn’s co-owner Jeff Henry and slide designer John Schooley, but the charges were later dropped. The park is now under new management.