The boy died while riding the Verrückt, the world’s tallest water slide, she said. The park released no other details.According to the park’s website, the slide required two to three riders to be strapped in a raft with a total weight between 400 and 500 pounds.
The raft then “will slide down a jaw-dropping 168 foot 7 inch structure, only to be blasted back up a second massive hill and then sent down yet another gut wrenching 50 foot drop for the ultimate in water slide thrills,” the website said.
Each rider was required to be at least 54 inches tall. It was not immediately known Sunday whether Caleb met the height requirement.
Thousands of children are hurt annually on amusement rides, according to a 2013 study by the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, which examined data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Head and neck injuries were the most common at 28%, with 1.5% of the injuries requiring hospitalization, the study said.
Consumer Product Safety Commission statistics for 2015 are not available, but a review of the raw data found 45,000 injuries associated with amusement rides and water slides nationwide; about 30,000 of these cases involved those under age 18.
Verrückt, 17 stories high — higher than Niagara Falls — propels riders at 50 mph. It’s name translates as “insane” in German.
