KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A former executive for a water park company was charged Friday with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 10-year-old boy who was decapitated on a giant waterslide at a Kansas water park. Tyler Austin Miles, 29, a former operations director of Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts, pleaded not guilty Friday during a brief court appearance.
He is the first person criminally charged in the Aug. 7, 2016 death of Caleb Schwab, the son of Kansas Rep. Scott Schwab, at the Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas City, Kansas. He was on a raft with two women on the 17-story "Verruckt" waterslide — billed as the world's tallest waterslide — when the raft went airborne, hitting a pole and netting designed to keep riders from being thrown from the ride.
Miles has also been charged with 12 counts of aggravated battery, five counts of aggravated endangerment of a child and two counts of interfering with law enforcement, The Kansas City Star reported. Involuntary manslaughter is defined in Kansas as the reckless killing of a human being.
His attorneys asked that his bond be reduced to $15,000 from $50,000 but that request was denied. A trial was scheduled for Sept. 10.
Schlitterbahn, which is based in Texas, said in a statement Friday that it was "deeply disappointed to learn any individual is being personally charged for the terrible accident on Verruckt.
"Our review of the facts and circumstances of the accident has never shown any evidence of criminal conduct on the part of anyone," spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said.
Scott Schwab and his attorney, Mike Rader, didn't immediately respond Friday to a request for comment.
Miles' attorney, Tricia Bath, said during Friday's hearing that Miles started at Schlitterbahn as a lifeguard and worked his way up to operations manager. She said Schwab's death was a "horrible tragedy."
Verruckt — German for "insane" — included multi-person rafts that made a 17-story drop at speeds of up to 70 mph, followed by a surge up a hump and a 50-foot descent to a finishing pool. It received national publicity when it opened at the park in 2014.
The waterslide has been closed since Caleb's death. Schlitterbahn has said it will dismantle the ride when the investigation into the boy's death is complete.
Caleb Schwab's family reached settlements of nearly $20 million with Schlitterbahn and various companies associated with the design and construction of the waterslide. The two women who rode with Caleb suffered serious injuries and settled claims with Schlitterbahn for an undisclosed amount.
Before the boy's death, Kansas law allowed parks to conduct their own annual inspections of rides. Lawmakers last year nearly unanimously approved stricter, annual inspection requirements for amusement park rides that set qualifications for the inspectors and required parks to report injuries and deaths to the state.
But only weeks later, lawmakers passed a follow-up bill delaying the enforcement of criminal penalties for operating a ride without a state permit until this year. And this year, the Senate and a House committee have approved legislation to lessen regulation for "limited use" rides at events like county fairs and exempt some amusements, such as hay rides, from regulation.
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1. A video recording of (Caleb Schwab's) death confirms that, at the time of his death, (Caleb) was obeying all rider instructions.
2. The death of (Caleb) appeared at first to be an isolated and unforeseeable incident until whistleblowers from within Schlitterbahn's own ranks came forward and revealed that Schlitterbahn had covered up similar incidents in the past.
3. In fact, the design and operation of the Verruckt complied with few, in any of the industry safety standards.
4. Those responsible for Verruckt's operation knew they were guilty of criminal misconduct, as evinced by their attempts to conceal evidence from law enforcement officers. Those obstructions substantially delayed the investigation.
5. John Schooley (lead designer along with John Henry) possesses no engineering credentials relevant to amusement ride design or safety. As lead designer, Schooley was responsible for overseeing the onsite work and reported directly to Henry. Schooley was the person responsible for doing "the math" that went into Verruckt's design.
6. Due to Henry's and Schooley's lack of expertise and a desire to rush the time line, they skipped fundamental steps in the design process. In place of mathematics and physical calculations, they rushed forward relying almost entirely on crude trial-and-error methods.
7. Henry and Schooley considered imposing a rider age restriction to prevent younger children from riding Verruckt. (Consultant John) Hunsucker recommended an age limit of 16 years of age, due to the ride's extreme nature. The designers selected 14 years of age which was printed on signage. However, on the eve of grand opening, the decision was made to eliminate the age restriction and allow younger children to ride Verruckt. Stickers were used partially to cover the age restriction language on the posted signage.
8. Henry, Schooley and Miles each had knowledge that rafts were still going airborne in the days before Verruckt's grand opening to the public, meaning the installation of overhead hoops and netting above the ride path was particularly reckless.
9. On August 16, 2014, Hunsucker wrote a report to Henry warning him that Verruckt was unfinished and was still in an unsafe condition. Henry obviously ignored the report because Verruckt remained in operation.
10. On or about Sept. 1, 2016, one of the lifeguards Miles had coerced into writing a coached statement, N.W. (age 17) came forward to (KCK Police) Det. Sutton and revealed Miles' efforts to cover up the (J.J.) Groves incident in June of 2016. Investigators then interviewed Groves, the lifeguards and the medical staff who were involved in the Groves incident. Each person independently corroborated Miles' efforts to cover up.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/article206654264.html
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Here's the actual indictment. It starts getting good on page 19.
https://www.wycocourtks.org/uploads...21_indictment__miles_swkc__filed_redacted.pdf
