The raft plunged down the first 17-story drop, a vertical scream that sent water spraying into the air.
But Verrückt was designed with a unique secondary feature: after the massive drop, the raft was supposed to crest a second, smaller hill before the final splashdown.
It was during this second hump, as the raft surged forward with terrifying momentum, that the unthinkable happened.
Eyewitnesses would later describe the sight of the raft becoming airborne, losing contact with the slide’s surface entirely.
In that terrifying gap between the water and the sky, the raft struck the heavy metal support structures that arched over the slide.
The impact was instantaneous, and for young Caleb, it was fatal.
The silence that followed the crash was broken only by the screams of those nearby, as the true cost of “insane” engineering became clear.
In the days that followed, the grief of the Schwab family was echoed by a growing sense of public outrage and confusion.
How could a 10-year-old boy go to a family waterpark and never come home?
As investigators began to peel back the layers of the slide’s history, the “record-breaking” attraction began to look more like a tragedy waiting to happen.
Court documents eventually revealed a chilling reality: the slide had been rushed to completion to meet media deadlines.
There were reports of inadequate engineering reviews and limited testing that ignored the physics of what happens when a raft hits high speeds on a steep incline.