Caleb Schwab was decapitated on the Verruckt water slide in Kansas

THE water slide that decapitated a 10-year-old boy was plagued with safety concerns that saw rafts flying off the ride and delayed its grand opening twice.

FOOTAGE of rafts flying off the world’s tallest waterside where a 10-year-old boy was killed has been revealed as safety concerns around the ride begin to surface.

The Sun reports that the opening of the 17-storey free fall water ride has been revealed to have been pushed back twice with further safety concerns coming to light after young Caleb Schwab was decapitated while on the ride, with horrified witnesses recounting the horror blood-streaks left on the ride.

Footage of the ride being tested show rafts flying from the huge ride with it delayed twice due to safety concerns and technical glitches.

When the ride first opened in 2014, co-owner and Verruckt creator Jess Henry told USA Today: “We had many issues on the engineering side. A lot of our math was based on roller-coasters at first, and that didn’t translate to a water slide like this.

“No one had ever done anything like this.”

The ride, which is taller than both the Statue of Liberty and Niagara Falls, left even its creator terrified.

“I’m still recovering mentally. It’s like jumping off the Empire State Building. It’s the scariest thing I’ve done,” he said.

Mr Henry said at the time that while the ride was dangerous, it was “safe dangerous”.

The Verruckt ride, which means “insane” in German, was open at the Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas City, Kansas, when Caleb, the son of Kansas politician Scott Schwab, was killed.

Caleb Schwab was killed when he went on the Verruckt ride. Picture: Supplied

Witness Kelsey Friedrichse told People that she and her boyfriend were on their way up the huge water slide when they saw crowds gathering at the bottom of the 51-metre ride.

“There was a woman being treated for some kind of injury on her face and head. That was when my boyfriend said, ‘I think there is someone else’,” she said.

The 27-year-old said she was horrified to see the body of the 10-year-old being covered by first responders.

“It looked like he must have somehow been ejected from his seat, bounced around between the netting and the slide and just slide down. He would have fallen down without the raft, it’s kind of like a tube,” she said.

The park has since been shut down while an investigation into the boy’s death continues.

Other traumatised witnesses said they saw Caleb’s family crying as emergency services treated the other two women who were on the raft.

Other thrillseekers have since shared their experiences on the ride, including Paul Oberhauser, who told local station KCTV that his shoulder restraint had “busted loose”.

“As soon as I hit the bottom of the first curve the shoulder strap just kind of busted loose,” he said.

He said he had told park staff, saying: “They kinda said, ‘Oh no, really’ or something ‘yes, that’s not good’. And so it sounded like, you know, they were going to do something about it.”

Riders go down the slide in multi-person rafts and have to be at last 137 centimetres tall, according to the park’s website.

Kenneth Conrad told Fox4 that his friend’s shoulder strap had come “completely off” during a ride on the slide last year.

Caleb Thomas Schwab posing with his father Scott Schwab, a Kansas state politician. Picture: AP

“As we were going down, we went down the first one, and as we were approaching the second one, he was in the back and you could hear him say that his strap came off and when we hit, he was real tense, shaken, because his strap had come completely off and literally he was using all of his force to hold him onto the slide,” he said.

Kansas Senator David Haley has since demanded better regulation of amusement parks with it revealed the Verruckt ride had not been inspected by the state since it was opened.

Schwab and his wife released a statement confirming it was their son Caleb Thomas Schwab, whose family were at the park with him when he died.

Asking for privacy to grieve, they said: “Since the day he was born, he brought abundant joy to our family and all those he came in contact with.”

Our deepest condolences to the entire Schwab family on their loss. pic.twitter.com/gYiffrxgkA

— Terry Zeigler (@KCKPDChief) August 9, 2016

Kansas Police Department has since released a statement, expressing their condolences to the Schwab family after the tragic loss of Caleb.

In the statement, police said: “Caleb Schwab was 1 of 3 passengers riding in a boat on the Verruckt Water Slide on August 7th, 2016. At approximately 1430 hours an off-duty officer working at Schlitterbahn notified police dispatch that an incident had occurred on the Verruckt Water Slide, and assistance was needed.

“The Kansas City, Kansas Police and Fire Departments responded to the scene and located Caleb Schwab, 10 years old, dead from a fatal neck injury at the end of the ride, in the pool. The two other adult female riders in the boat, not related to the victim, sustained minor facial injuries, and were transported and treated at area hospitals.”

Police said investigations into the incident were ongoing.

Caleb Schwab was killed when he went on the Verruckt ride. Picture: Supplied

This article originally appeared in The Sun