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REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT IN KANSAS Before Schwab’s death in August 2016, the state of Kansas was known for having few regulations related to amusement park rides. Amusement and water park companies were well known for lobbying legislators for autonomy in maintaining operations and conducting self-inspections. The state mandated annual inspections of permanent amusement park rides but allowed operators to hire private inspectors to perform checks rather than requiring state inspections.8 Additionally, the state only conducted random audits of water parks’ records, and there were no other local safety regulations.9 And while the US federal government’s Consumer Product Safety Commission could set safety standards for products like children’s toys, it did not have the authority to regulate water parks.10 Before Kansas had considered imposing inspection requirements in 2008, a Schlitterbahn lobbyist urged state legislators to allow large parks to handle their own inspections. In June 2016, shortly before Caleb’s death, the state Department of Labor inspected all of Schlitterbahn’s rides and cleared them for use. At the time of Caleb’s death, the Verrückt slide complied with Kansas’s legal requirements, which mostly involved proper record keeping (see Exhibit 2).11 David Mandt, a spokesperson for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, said that 85 million people safely visited water parks every year, making an accident like the one in Kansas City “extremely rare.” Furthermore, he explained that “we go to great lengths to ensure the safety of our guests.”12 In contrast to Kansas, other states like New Jersey imposed rules like requiring engineering staff and licensed field inspectors to review all rides. Pennsylvania, too, required state-certified inspections when a new ride was created and every 30 days thereafter. Pennsylvania also conducted unannounced quality assurance inspections.13 Ken Martin, a Virginia-based amusement park safety consultant, said, “As far as Kansas having a bad reputation in the industry, they’re known for having little to no regulations. It’s been that way for years.”14 SCHLITTERBAHN WATERPARKS & RESORT HISTORY Jeff Henry, the son of an accountant, and his wife grew up at his family’s New Braunfels, Texas, water park resort, which was called the Landa.15 Unlike his brother and sister, who went off to college, Henry decided to pursue other things. As a young boy, he swam, fished, canoed, rafted, and hunted for turtles. An entrepreneur at heart, he decided to buy damaged car-tire inner tubes at gas stations, and he repaired them to sell to tourists, who used them to float in a nearby river.16 Henry’s passion for water park rides and devices began when he noticed riders hitting the water too hard at the bottom of one of the park’s slides, and he decided to create a piece of equipment that slowed them down. He called the device a “water brake.” In the early 70s, his inspiration for water park design became stronger still after he and a friend visited two new water parks called Wet n’ Wild and Disney’s River Country, both in Orlando, Florida. He decided to convince his father to buy a piece of property next door to the family water park, and there they built a 60-foot replica of a German castle. His father called the park Schlitterbahn. His brother handled the park’s finances, and his younger sister took over marketing. Henry was in charge of attractions.17 By 1990, the new park had become a big hit. It attracted nearly 500,000 people a year. Visitors enjoyed free parking and were allowed to bring their own meals. The park contained a 50,000-square-foot pool, an inner-tube ride, the Cliffhanger Tube Chute, the Raging River Tube Chute, and a manmade river that encircled the park and behaved like a real river.18 At this point, the park started attracting national attention. Due to the increased publicity, the Henry family bought another 25-acre property three blocks east of the main park. Henry created two new rides for this park, the Boogie Bahn, which was a boogie board ride, and the Dragon Blaster, which was a watery roller coaster. He also constructed another water roller coaster ride, the Master Blaster, which was six stories tall and filled with extreme turns.19 Given all Henry’s achievements, the success sometimes went to his head. He would nonchalantly prop his feet up on the table during meetings, and he was sometimes known to be stubborn with coworkers. People met Henry and instantly disliked him because he was always so adamant that he was right. But he was not concerned with what people thought of him. He only cared about creating the world’s best water park rides.20 Henry also capitalized on his inventive efforts and success by exporting his inventions globally. He sold technology to two world-renowned resorts, Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas and The Palm in Dubai. He was always focused on creating the biggest and best attractions the world had ever seen. “I always set out to break all the records,” he once said. “I want to be the first at the bar to buy a drink, and I want to be the first to meet a pretty girl, and I want to be the first at everything. I want to have the biggest, the tallest, and the fastest rides at my parks.”21 In 2006, the Henry family opened a year-round water park in Galveston, Texas, the success of which caught the eye of prospective developers nationwide. One proposal was to create a Schlitterbahn-branded park in Kansas City, Kansas. Without hesitation, the Henry family agreed. To make matters even better, a real estate investment trust offered to lend the family $174.3 million to help kickstart the project. In addition, the State of Kansas also contributed $200 million in sales tax revenue bonds, as officials saw the park as an opportunity to grow the state’s economy. The Schlitterbahn water parks were becoming bigger than anyone could have imagined.22 Before Schwab died, there were five Schlitterbahn-branded water parks in the United States: four in Texas and one in Kansas City, Kansas, the newest addition to their chain. It was estimated that 2 million people visited the parks every year. At a Schlitterbahn park, there was truly something for everyone. Families that attended a Schlitterbahn water park every weekend were called “Bahnophiles,” and they would sometimes even spend an entire vacation visiting one of the parks.23 THE INSANE VERRÜCKT SLIDE In November 2012, Henry attended a trade show and met producers from the Travel Channel who were working on a program called Xtreme Waterparks. When asked if he had any ongoing projects, Henry, without thinking, said that he and John Schooley, his chief collaborator, were planning to create the world’s fastest and tallest waterslide at Schlitterbahn’s Kansas City location.24 Naturally, Henry wanted to impress the producers but realized this meant building a ride never seen before. He consulted with his brother and sister, and the project concept was born. After going over the plans with his team, he sent an email saying, “We all need to circle on this. . . . I must communicate reality to all. Time, [sic] is of the essence. No time to die. . . . I have to micro manage [sic] this. NOW. This is a designed product for TV, absolutely cannot be anything else. Speed is 100% required. A floor a day. Tough schedule.”25 In November 2013, the ride was given the name Verrückt. Henry and his team completed the design calculations in just over five weeks, a much shorter time frame than what they were used to. To ensure Verrückt worked as planned, Henry and Schooley (neither of whom had an engineering background) and their staff needed to design the precise specifications of the slide. They needed to keep in mind the slope of the slide’s hill, the raft sizes, and the minimum and maximum weights of the riders. Complex engineering methodologies related to which gravitational and centrifugal forces riders should sustain to keep them safe were imperative to the ride’s safety. Designing a slide of that magnitude, size, and speed was not an easy task. Henry deployed a team of engineers and architects to assist in the design but tended to rely on trial and error.26 During the testing stages, the crew from Xtreme Waterparks documented the team’s journey building the slide. Whenever Henry did interviews for the show, his demeanor suggested that the Verrückt slide consumed him entirely. In one interview, he said, “Verrückt could hurt me; it could kill me. It is a seriously dangerous piece of equipment today because there are things that we don’t know about. If we mess up, it could be the end. I could die going down this ride.”27 Throughout the testing process, delays often occurred