[wyldfire]

I love capitalism and the idea behind laissez faire. I still think it might be the least bad thing out there but I keep coming back to stuff like this where people just don't act in their own long-term (or even short-term sometimes) interest. Caleb's gone, many people who lived in Grenfell Tower are gone, and now I think many markets where safety is critical deserve some good regulation.

> He never got a conventional education beyond high school and never formally studied physics or engineering.

That alone isn't a bad thing. Maybe he's a visionary for these water rides. Provided you retain real engineers and take their advice, that is...

> an engineering firm ... issued a report suggesting ... there was a chance the raft would go airborne on the second hill. The ride opened anyway, with the weight range unchanged.

!!!

> But one of his lawyers acknowledged that Jeff didn’t have such training. He added, “Neither did Henry Ford, and he built the car.”

This is actually a mildly compelling argument. Thousands died in cars for decades [1] before cars competed on safety features and real safety regulations arrived. However, today, I think and hope that other water parks and amusement ride designers do conventionally use simulation and other methods to arrive at safe designs. It's not unreasonably expensive considering the total expenditure of the ride's design and construction.

States like Kansas should come up with some terribly simple low bars like requiring professionally licensed engineers to sign off on a ride's design and maintenance procedures as safe, and requiring annual inspections of ride service and incident records.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in...

[cmiles74]

Is it really possible that no licensed engineers were involved with the project, and that none of them signed off on anything significant? Based on the article, it sounds like at least one licensed engineer noticed that rafts were leaving the track.

[toast0]

Given that Kansas apparently allows water parks to self-assess the safety of their rides, and that the owner of the park doesn't care about safety, but has a construction background, it's not a surprise to me that no engineers were involved in the design.

It's not a good idea to build public buildings without the input of a structrural engineer, but it's not impossible.

[tqkxzugoaupvwqr]

Engineers were involved as consultants but their assessment was cast aside.

> What’s more, according to court documents, the investigators learned that on July 3, 2014, one week before the ride’s grand opening, an engineering firm hired by Jeff and Schooley to perform accelerometer tests on Verrückt’s rafts had issued a report suggesting that if the combined weight of the three passengers in a raft was between 400 and 550 pounds—the weight Jeff and Schooley had agreed was appropriate—there was a chance the raft would go airborne on the second hill. The ride opened anyway, with the weight range unchanged.

In the end, no expert vouched for the ride’a safety.

> Kansas City reporters began digging. They quickly learned that their state, like Texas, allows water parks to be self-inspected. (Under the headline “The making of Schlitterbahn’s Verrückt water slide: Too much, too fast?” a Kansas City Star article concluded that “the ultimate safety of [Verrückt] mostly began and ended with those inspired to build it.”)

[bb88]

> This is actually a mildly compelling argument.

I liked your post up to this point. But no, it's not a compelling argument -- especially one made by a lawyer.

I wouldn't absolve Tesla for the liability of its cars just because Elon Musk is a "genius". I would expect a genius to know the limits of his knowledge. Maybe he was too proud to ask for help.

[GavinMcG]

This isn't a personal accusation, but had you never heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, or read The Jungle, or Silent Spring? I'm asking because these are things I encountered in high school, and in a community that very much "love[s] capitalism and the idea behind laissez faire."

I'd like to hope that everyone's education would be enough to instill an understanding of these things. The alternative is a Grenfell Tower for every generation.

[wyldfire]

> had you never heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, or read The Jungle, or Silent Spring?

No, no, and no. I at least know of Sinclair and I'm familiar with the subject matter of The Jungle.

[mcphage]

Well, then, that’s probably why you still love the idea behind Laissez-Faire.