10-year-old killed in America is the tip of the iceberg

THEY can be deadly but we keep seeking dangerous thrills on amusement park rides. Why do we do it to ourselves?

THEME parks have a long and bloody history.

This week, 10-year-old Caleb Thomas became the latest victim, when he was killed on the world’s biggest water slide. It’s known as the “Verruckt” (which translates to “insane” in German), and it’s 17-storeys high. Riders are strapped to multi-person rafts, flying down a steep drop and surging up a hill, before sliding into a pool. Somewhere along the way, Caleb’s seatbelt reportedly came loose.

Witnesses say they heard loud booms coming from the attraction, before seeing a lifeless body wash down the slide, leaving a trail of blood. Two women on board suffered facial injuries.

It’s since been revealed the opening of the free-fall water slide was pushed back twice, due to safety concerns and technical glitches.

It’s a tragedy, but it’s far from isolated.

On Friday, a child was injured after falling off a rollercoaster in Pennsylvania.

On Wednesday, three young girls fell 12 metres from a Ferris wheel in Tennessee.

Why does it keep happening?

Caleb Schwab was killed in a horrific water slide accident in the United States.

A CHRONOLOGY OF HORROR

There are some bafflingly stupid rides out there.

One of the worst offenders is New Jersey’s Action Park, home to the “Cannonball Loop”. It’s a fully enclosed water slide, including a loop-the-loop, that opened in the 1970s. It was so unstable a crash dummy was decapitated during trials. Only a few brave souls attempted the kamikaze-like attraction (reportedly paid employees), and it was shut down immediately.

The park was also home to the “Alpine Slide”, which saw children hurtle down a concrete track at breakneck speeds in a plastic sled with a notoriously faulty handbrake. Aside from obvious risks such as grazes and cuts, one person was killed when his sled derailed, and his head smashed against a nearby rock.

Several others drowned in the amusement park’s “Tidal Wave Pool.”

By the time it closed in 1996, six people were killed and hundreds more injured. It seems the owners could no longer afford the barrage of legal proceedings.

A test dummy was decapitated on this water slide in New Jersey before it opened.

Sometimes deaths occur as a result of maintenance issues or operator error.

In California in 1997, when 33 year 12 students packed onto a water slide at Waterworld. Their combined weight caused the structure to collapse, killing one and sending the other 32 to hospital. More than half of them graduated in wheelchairs.

In England, a 20-year-old woman suffered fatal head and spine injuries on a rollercoaster called the “Treetop Twister” when her carriage came loose, smashing into the car in front in 2010.

Six people were killed, five critically injured, and several others knocked unconscious when a Chinese ride malfunctioned that same year.

You might remember the brutal Alton Towers rollercoaster accident in 2015, when two young English women had their legs amputated after getting trapped.

Why do we keep going back for more?

Leah Washington is one of two women who lost a leg in the disaster.

Four teenagers were seriously injured at Alton Towers Resort in 2015.

THE CONTRADICTION OF CHASING THRILLS

Chasing thrills gives you a buzz. Physiologically, the thrill you get from surviving the world’s steepest water slide is the same the one you get from more extreme pursuits. Your body floods with adrenaline, and you feel good.

It’s something base jumper Jurgen Mennel is familiar with, saying it makes you feel “totally alive”. Originally from Austria, he came to Australia as a skydiving instructor 20 years ago, and says his interests developed from there into “everything that’s fast”.

“Supernatural thrills force you into the moment, and everything else just disappears,” he says.

However, while many people like flirting with danger, no-one wants to invite it to dinner.

“That’s where people get confused,” Jurgen says. “They think thrillseekers put their life on the line. They forget how much training and risk management goes into it. We don’t want to walk to the edge of a building and just jump off.”

The Verruckt is so scary even the ride’s creator says he’s “still recovering mentally”.

The concept of being safe, but dangerous, is what inspired the Verruckt.

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.”

He said it’s the scariest thing he’s ever done.

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

Professor Ralf Buckley, from Griffith University in Queensland, specialises in adventure tourism.

“There’s a good reason why fear exists,” he says. “It helps you avoid being damaged by dangerous things.”

He uses bungee jumping as an example.

“It seems terrifying, but it gives you a smile that lasts all day,” he says. “You have just a moment when you’re falling freely and you think you’re going to die. It’s such a blast. It feels super, super-frightening, but actually it’s super-safe. There’s no way you can screw it up unless the operator makes an error.”

The whole idea is to get scared enough for an adrenaline kick, without facing actual danger.

“For some people it’s addictive,” he says. “You want it again, you want it bigger, you want it faster, you want it now.”

Perhaps that’s why we keep pushing the limits — building higher water slides, faster roller-coasters, bigger Ferris wheels, crazier experiences. We simply get bored.

It’s like going down the same slide at a children’s playground. It’s a wild ride when you’re five, it’s fun when you’re 10, but it’s dull when you’re 15.

If theme parks don’t get more and more extreme, they’ll lose customers.

We’ll move on.