Authorities have revealed that Caleb Schwab, the 10-year-old who died in a water slide accident at the Schlitterbahn Water Park in Kansas City on Sunday, died of a neck injury.
The son of Kansas Rep. Scott Schwab went down the 17-story thrill ride, but something went wrong along the way. He was found at the bottom unresponsive. According to PEOPLE, Schwab was decapitated.
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Riders sit three to a raft as they plunge 168 feet down on the Verrückt water slide.
Two women who had been in the raft with Schwab were treated for minor facial injuries.
Kelsey Friedrichsen, a witness who had been waiting to ride the slide, said, “It looked like he must have somehow been ejected from his seat, bounced around between the netting and the slide and just slid down. He would have fallen down without the raft. It’s kind of like a tube.”
The slide’s opening in 2014 was delayed due to the fact that rafts occasionally flew off the track. The park added a net covering the track and enforced a weight limit on the slide to make it safe enough to ride.
In the wake of the fatal accident the park has closed the water coaster pending a full investigation.
