schlitterbahn water park indictments highlight lax state rules

TOPEKA, Kan. --
Ken Martin remembers an episode of travel channels in the world\'s tallest waterslide.
Richmond hotel Virginia-Based on entertainment
Park security experts said he was shocked that the test sandbags flew away from the journey, and the nylon belt with Velcro limited the number of passengers on the raft to 70 miles per hour.
\"I was sitting on the couch and I was thinking, \'Oh my God.
What are these people thinking?
Martin recalled in an interview.
\"I began to pray for the people who took the car.
\"Verruckt waterslide is a major attraction in Schlitterbahn Park, Kansas City, and has opened since 2014-until a 10-year-
The beheading of the old boy forced it to close in August 2016.
Earlier this month, a grand jury in Kansas sued Schlitterbahn water park and resort and partners at Verruckt.
Many designers of criminal charges, including the second
The degree of murder Caleb Schwab died.
Caleb Schwab, 10 family photos of the world\'s tallest water slide, is known as \"Verruckt\" at Schlitterbahn Water Park in Kansas City, Kansas City \".
A child was closed after death in 2016.
When Charlie Riddle/AP was preparing to open the summer at the water park nationwide, the Kansas indictment highlighted the inconsistency of state regulations covering amusement parks.
The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission says it knows 12 people have died in water parks since 2010, 22 others have died in other amusement parks, and in 2016, park customers visited about 40,000 emergency rooms.
In a statement on its website, Schlitterbahn said that all rides are fully inspected by supervisors and managers \"every day\", each year by the insurance company and another \"independent\"
The company said,
Owner Jeffrey Wayne Henry Designed rides \"all over the world\" and \"almost every water park that exists today has an appeal or feature based on his design or idea.
\"At the time of Caleb\'s death, the International Amusement Park Association estimated that more than 85 million people visited the water park safely every year.
According to the company\'s website, Kansas City park in Schlitterbahn is scheduled to open normally in May.
The Verruckt ride will be idle but has not yet been torn off.
When wilucket was built, Kansas\'s rules and regulations were lax, Martin--
Its company is certified to inspect rides in four states-
The state\'s supervision remains weak, he said.
Caleb is the son of the Kansas representative.
Republican Scott Schwab and lawmakers from olasi, a Kansas City suburb, passed a law last year requiring qualified external inspectors to conduct annual inspections.
But it allows the park staff to conduct daily inspections throughout the season.
The Kansas House passed a bill Wednesday to weaken short-term ride rules
Annual fairs and events such as riding hayrack rides to reassure rural lawmakers.
\"Of course we should pass these other regulations faster,\" the state representative said . \".
Jene Vickrey, a conservative Republican
Local officials did check whether Verruckt met their building codes, for example, the tower had metal stair railings instead of wooden stair railings.
But they did not judge its work, nor did the state.
Saferparks, a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing accidents at amusement parks in California, said there were 20 states providing comprehensive supervision.
New Jersey requires ride makers to be state-certified and licensed inspectors to review ride conditions, with inspections conducted in 22 states.
Is the water park responsible for 10 deaths? year-old boy?
The group says seven states, including Alabama, Mississippi and Nevada, do not need annual inspections.
The Kansas grand jury\'s indictment says Henry made a \"impulsive\" decision in 2012 to build the world\'s tallest waterslide, leaving a deep impression on the producers of the Travel Channel program.
The indictment charged Schlitterbahn with skipping \"The basic steps in the design process\" because Henry and ride shared
Designer John Timothy Schooley lacks the necessary expertise.
But Schlitterbahn objected to allegations of poor engineering quality and poor planning quality, saying the indictment was \"full of information about our dispute \".
\"Henry and Schooley have a number of patents through their New Braunfels, Texas, from the conveyor belt to the water park\'s mobility system
Headquartered in Henry, Schooley & Associates.
In a 2016 story in Curbed, a real estate blog, Henry says his specialty is \"transport entertainment\", designing artificial rivers that allow visitors to cross the water park rather than the bolder waterslide.
Schlitterbahn said that the indictment was considered to be Henry and Schooley\'s comments to support criminal cases against them, based on the television show \"for dramatic effects and heights\"
Brian lasain, a law professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, said criminal charges against Henry and the school were \"without legal basis \".
\"Media commentator on legal issues arising from the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, LaCesne, said he contacted a family lawyer at Schooley, an acquaintance of Schooley and planned to pay close attention to the cases.
He said there were too many incidents between the design of the slide and the death of Caleb ---
Including design changes and \"thousands\" of rides without injuries-
Such criminal charges are worth it.
\"The danger of doing this is that you have a very emotional sensational case,\" he said . \".
\"Because of the particular intensity of sympathy for the victims, you never know what the jury will do.
\"But what Martin saw on the Travel Channel, he had a different reaction:\" Poor Caleb, \"and later,\" he had no chance.