Courtesy Schwab Family (KANSAS CITY, Kan.) — Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas, is set to reopen at noon local time Wednesday, three days after a 10-year-old boy died on one of the park’s waterslides.
The young victim, Caleb Schwab, suffered a fatal neck injury on the Verruckt waterslide on Sunday, officials said.
While the Verruckt ride will remain closed for the season, other rides will open Wednesday, the park said.
“We continue to pray and keep in our thoughts everyone impacted by the tragic events on Sunday and we are keeping the Schwab family in our prayers,” the park said in a statement Tuesday.
Esteban Castaneda, a man who witnessed the accident, recounted the “horrific scene” to ABC News.
Castaneda first heard a “boom” and then saw a raft come through, and “immediately after the raft … you see a body,” he said.
He said there were two women sitting in the back of the raft with blood on them.
Castaneda said he started running toward the slide, then heard a lifeguard yelling and a boy screaming hysterically.
Castaneda saw a body lying in the water, but he said a lifeguard told him, “There’s nothing you can do.”
Caleb’s father is state Rep. Scott Schwab.
“Since the day he was born, he brought abundant joy to our family and all those he came in contact with,” Schwab said.
Kansas House Speaker Ray Merrick sent an email on Sunday to other members of the state legislature asking them to pray for the family.
“It is with an absolutely broken heart we have to ask for prayers for the Schwab family, who suddenly and tragically lost their sweet and energetic son in an accident today,” he wrote. “No words can express the pain we all feel for this terrible tragedy.”
Family pastor Clint Sprague said Caleb “was an incredible young man” who was “full of life.”
He was “affectionate” and a “hugger,” Sprague said, and he loved baseball, basketball and his church.
“Caleb was a 10-year-old child, but in many ways, he was a man of God,” Sprague said.
The Kansas City Police Department is investigating the accident.
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