re: Schlitterbahn employee charged in KC boys death

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This whole thing makes me sick on so many levels.

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If you read ~10 pages of the indictment, beginning on ~p. 19, you will only be sickened by the actions (and inaction and obstruction and cover-up) of Director of Operations, Miles

Maybe he didn't design the slide and it wasn't his idea to build it, but they knew for a long time that the ride was dangerous, that people were getting injured, that people were going airborne where the kid died when they weren't supposed to be. He also knew that the employees working the ride weren't very strict with the safety guidelines.

He knew people were potentially in danger, he had the power to change something or even shut the ride down altogether, he didn't exercise that power and a kid died as a result.... Not sure how some of y'all are on the side of him holding no responsibility at all. He's not the only responsible party, and no don't congressmen daddy is making sure they're going after him harsher than should be, but there's without a doubt a level of responsibility there that by this guy that deserves to be punished.

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anyone defending this dude or the park is woefully uninformed

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Agreed. Henry and Scooley should have been indicted as well.

So what happened to the boy that died? Was he decapitated?

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Dude going down. Willful negligence and forcing his life guards to give fake statements. At first I was doubtful the manager should have been charged, but after reading indictments, he and many others in that organization should be facing a jury.

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At this point, my only question is: What the heck was he thinking? What kind of 'pressure from management' or 'bonus structure based on ticket-sales' causes any reasonably intelligent person to conclude that the course of action he took would not bite him in the arse.

Even a rudimentary understanding of accident causation would conclude that the events as they unfolded would escalate to some kind of fatality. The injury list halfway through the indictment, taken with the rest of it, looks like a textbook "chain of events escalation" of incidents. Not to mention the obstruction. Heck, I believe I read that he snuck out a set of incriminating logs/documents from Kansas City to New Braunfels.

On top of all that, Schlitterbahn issued a VERY favorable response towards Mr. Miles. Their statement was in full defense of him and surprise he was charged.

I think his ONLY hope for leniency is some way to convince the jury that the actual pressure came from higher-up in the company. So Schlitterbahn is gonna stroke him all they can, hoping he doesn't finger higher management... and fingering them is his only hope for a lighter sentence. But dude will do some jail time.