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Lawmaker's Family Reaches Settlement with Water Park Over Son's Death

The Kansas state lawmaker, whose 10-year-old son died in a Kansas water park, has reached a settlement with the park’s owner.
Image: Caleb Schwab
Caleb Schwab, pictured here, died on the Verr?ckt ride at the Schlitterbahn Water Park in Kansas City in August of 2016.Schwab family via KSHB-TV

A settlement has been reached between a Kansas state representative’s family and the owner of a water park where the lawmaker's 10-year-old son died in an accident on a water slide over the summer.

Winter Prosapio, spokeswoman for the Schlitterbahn Water Park, told NBC News that the park had reached a settlement with the family of Republican state Rep. Scott Schwab, but she declined to provide additional details of the case.

Caleb Schwab died on the Verrückt ride at the Schlitterbahn Water Park in Kansas City in August.

Attorneys for the Schwab family in a statement Wednesday afternoon said it would only confirm the "information contained in the public record," which is that the settlement had been reached.

Image: The Verr?ckt water slide is pictured at the Schliiterbahn Water Park in Kansas City. It was billed as the world's tallest waterslide.
In this file photo, the Verruckt water slide is seen at the Schliiterbahn Water Park in Kansas City.Schlitterbahn Water Parks

The settlement involves two Schlitterbahn entities and the manufacturer of the raft the 10-year-old was riding in, and the lawyers said additional claims would be pursued against others.

"The Schwab family remains determined to hold all those responsible for this tragedy accountable, while doing all they can to ensure this never happens again to another family," attorneys Michael C. Rader and Todd Scharnhorst said in the statement.

The park boasted that the water slide in question was tallest in the world, a claim confirmed by the Guinness World Records. It dropped riders 169 feet at 65 mph.

The slide’s name, "Verrückt," is the German word for “insane” or "crazy." It will be torn down, the water park previously announced.

"Once the investigation is concluded and we are given permission by the court, Verrückt will be decommissioned — closed permanently and the slide removed from the tower," the park said in an October statement. "In our opinion, it is the only proper course of action following this tragedy."