Witnesses To Waterslide Accident Speak Out
KEILAR: The Kansas water park where a 10-year-old boy died on a waterslide is set to reopen today but the slide where the accident happened will remain closed. Police are blaming Caleb Schwab's death on a neck injury but they're still investigating what exactly caused it. And joining us now are two people who witnessed this deadly accident. We have Jess Sanford with us and Melanie Gocke. They had actually ridden this waterslide, the Verruckt, earlier in the day. Jess and Melanie, thank you both for being with us. There are a lot of details we don't know so I want to ask you what you saw. You were sitting near the slide when this happened. What happened?</s>MELANIE GOCKE, WITNESSED WATERSLIDE ACCIDENT: I saw most of what happened. I didn't see all of it but I heard the noise, and I looked over immediately and I saw his broken neck and him sliding down the slide leaving a blood trail.</s>KEILAR: Was he -- he was behind the raft that goes down the slide?</s>GOCKE: Yes.</s>JESS SANFORD, WITNESSED WATERSLIDE ACCIDENT: Yes, the raft went before him.</s>KEILAR: So, Jess, tell me what you saw?</s>SANFORD: I didn't -- I was facing kind of the other way but I turned around when I heard like a noise that didn't sound like it was supposed to come from that kind of ride. And then that's when I turned around and I kind of -- I didn't really like understand what was going on, so I only kind of saw Caleb slide down like the last half of the slide and then I saw the blood, and then we both kind of stood up.</s>GOCKE: And --</s>KEILAR: And -- sorry, go on.</s>GOCKE: We saw his friend screaming and crying about it.</s>SANFORD: His friend was screaming for help and then I think that's when staff members and medics and stuff starting running.</s>KEILAR: How quickly did that happen? How quickly was the response and that they got to him, and was there any attempt to try to revive him?</s>SANFORD: I don't think there was.</s>GOCKE: No, nobody went to try to revive him. One of the people that was at the waterpark went up to the slide to see if he was OK and I guess they saw that he wasn't. The medics immediately went to the other two people on the ride.</s>SANFORD: I think they just kind of realized that he was dead and so they didn't -- I don't think they tried to revive him.</s>KEILAR: You don't -- are you sure that they didn't go to him? They weren't checking his vital signs or anything? They seemed to think that he had passed away?</s>SANFORD: People weren't up close to him or anything.</s>KEILAR: OK, now you both had ridden this slide earlier in the day, right?</s>SANFORD: Yes.</s>KEILAR: And what did you notice? Had you ridden it before then, and what did you notice when you were riding the slide?</s>GOCKE: I noticed that there was Velcro seatbelts keeping you in and I realized -- before it went down I tried to wiggle out of it to see if they were safe and I got out of the straps pretty easily. And before the ride went I strapped myself back in, of course, and they weren't very secure.</s>SANFORD: Yes, we kind of got up there and then it was just kind of surprising to see that it was only Velcro straps.</s>KEILAR: And where -- show me. Where were the straps? Was it your arms, was it your waist, where?</s>SANFORD: There was one that connected from the top of your shoulder over to kind of a bottom one, and they Velcroed together like that, and then two Velcroed over your waist.</s>KEILAR: OK, and so you were able -- when you tried, Melanie, to sort of shimmy out of it was it just to see if the Velcro would come unstuck? Is that what it was?</s>GOCKE: Yes, I wanted to see how secure it was because it didn't look very secure to me.</s>KEILAR: And what was the -- were there signs that said you need to be this tall, you need to weigh this much? And I'm sure there were some small kids. Obviously, Caleb was a smaller child, but was there -- did there seem to be attention paid to that by the person -- or you tell me if there was a person there at the top of the slide.</s>GOCKE: Yes, the -- there was only just that you had to be 54 inches to ride the slide. And there was a lifeguard at the top and my little sister rode the ride with us, who is the same size and age as Caleb, and she just buckled everybody else in like normal.</s>SANFORD: They don't really like look into it, I guess, if you pass the height limit. It's just like it doesn't matter how close you are as long as you pass it.</s>KEILAR: Did you -- when you rode down the slide does it stay adhered to the track pretty well when you went down or is there sort of a jostling or a bumping or ever where the slide catches a little bit of air?</s>SANFORD: When we went, you didn't get airborne, but --</s>GOCKE: When my dad and my sister rode the ride right after us they said they got airborne.</s>KEILAR: At what part of the ride because we know that with Caleb it was the sort of -- he'd gone down the first slide and then there's another -- there's sort of another hill that the slide goes over.</s>SANFORD: Yes, when you come up the second hill, that's when.</s>KEILAR: That's when they went airborne? That's right, Melanie?</s>GOCKE: Yes.</s>KEILAR: That's when they went? That's when they said they got airborne? And we know now that the park's back open today. This slide is not open. What do you think should be done and how do you think this is being handled?</s>SANFORD: I think they definitely need to fix the straps on the ride because you'd think for something that's supposed to be known for being like the tallest slide in the world they'd have a little bit more secure straps than Velcro.</s>KEILAR: Yes.</s>SANFORD: I think they definitely need to figure that out before they open back up the slide.</s>GOCKE: I think they need to fix like the jostling around because your neck gets pretty shaken around like really good and you hit your head a lot.</s>SANFORD: They tell you to keep your head against the seat and even then my neck was kind of all over the place.</s>GOCKE: Yes, your neck -- her neck hurt after she rode down the ride.</s>SANFORD: Yes.</s>KEILAR: Jess and Melanie -- and it will be a -- I think it will be surprising if it even does reopen, we will see. But, thank you so much, Jess and Melanie. We really appreciate --</s>SANFORD: Yes.</s>KEILAR: -- you being with us and telling us about your experience -- Chris.</s>CUOMO: All right, Brianna, thank you very much. Let's turn now to the other big story of the morning, the Olympics. A strong night for Team USA. Huge expectations and huge delivery. We have the big winners and why the U.S. gymnastics women's team is being called historic. Stay with us.