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A water park company co-owner and a designer of the water slide hyped as the world's tallest have now been charged after a 10-year-old boy was decapitated on the ride in 2016.
- The water park is scheduled to reopen on May 25 for its annual season
- A Kansas agency plans to conduct a full audit of the water park's inspection records before it reopens
- The latest indictment is filled with information they "fully dispute", a Schlitterbahn spokeswoman says
A grand jury has issued indictments with multiple criminal charges against the park; the construction company that built the giant waterslide; former park operations director Tyler Austin Miles; the ride's co-designer, John Timothy Schooley, and a co-owner of Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts, Jeffrey Wayne Henry.
Mr Henry, Mr Schooley and the construction company face one felony count of second-degree murder and Mr Miles and the park, one count of involuntary manslaughter, over Caleb Schwab's death.
The raft he was riding on in the 17-storey Verruckt ride became airborne and hit an overhead loop.
A Kansas agency plans to conduct a full audit of the water park's inspection records before it reopens this spring, a state official said.
The State Department of Labor said it would review reports from daily inspections of rides by park staff at the Schlitterbahn park in Kansas City before it is scheduled to reopen on May 25 for its annual season.
A state law enacted last year after Caleb's death requires amusement parks to keep daily reports on their rides and to give them annual inspections.
State law allows parks to have their own staff do daily inspections and to have private inspectors do the annual inspections, rather than state inspectors.
The inspectors doing the annual reviews must be either licensed engineers with two years' experience with amusement rides, have five years' experience in inspecting rides or have been certified by one of three industry groups.
The State Department of Labor spokeswoman Barbara Hersh said the audit would show whether the park had been conducting the required inspections and maintaining proper records on them as it prepared to reopen for the season.
"They will have a notebook full of inspections," she said.
Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said in a statement the latest indictment against Mr Henry, Mr Schooley and the construction company "is filled with information that we fully dispute."
The company also posted a statement on its website that all park attractions are "thoroughly inspected daily" by supervisors and managers.
It also said before the park opens for the season, each ride has a thorough internal review and an inspection from "an independent third party".
The statement said the park's insurance provider also conducts annual inspections.
Mr Henry, Mr Schooley and the construction company are charged with second-degree murder in connection with Caleb's death, and Mr Miles and the park are charged with involuntary manslaughter.
All are charged with multiple counts of aggravated battery and aggravated endangering a child in connection with injuries to other riders on the 17-storey waterslide.
Mr Miles was arrested last week and released from a Kansas jail on a $US50,000 ($65,200) bond. Mr Henry was arrested Monday in Cameron County, Texas, and waived extradition to Kansas during a court hearing on Wednesday.
As for Mr Schooley, family attorney Kit Yam, of Houston, said he was traveling in Asia.
Mr Yam said Mr Schooley is in the process of hiring a Kansas City-area attorney.
"He is out of the country at this point on a business trip," Mr Yam said.
AP
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, crime, murder-and-manslaughter, united-states