Family of teenager Tyre Sampson who fell to his death from Florida amusement park ride
The family of a teenager who died after falling from an amusement park ride in Florida have backed a namesake law to improve rider safety on what would have been his 15th birthday.
Tyre Sampson, 14, was almost 100 pounds over the rides 287-pound weight limit when he was thrown from the 430ft Orlando FreeFall ride at the ICON Park, in March 2022.
The 6-foot five inches football player had been turned away from other rides for his 383-pound size when he visited on spring break from St. Louis Missouri.
According to a manual produced by the manufacturer of the ride, Funtime Thrill Rides, the maximum weight allowance for Orlando FreeFall is listed as 130 kilograms, or 286 pounds.
His friends and family met on Wednesday to mark the teenager’s 15th birthday, and his family are calling for the ride to be taken down permanently.
State Rep. Geraldine Thompson also announced that she would be introducing the ‘Tyre Sampson Law’ to improve rider safety on amusement rides in the next legislative session.
Sampson’s parents have sued the ride’s owner, manufacturer and landlord, saying they were negligent and failed to provide a safe amusement ride.
The family of Tyre Sampson (pictured), 14, from Missouri, gathered to mark what would have been his 15th birthday. Sampson was found to be 96 pounds over the weight limit for the FreeFall ride
Sampson was seen falling from the ride in March after his seatbelt wasn’t properly secured by members of staff
State Rep. Geraldine Thompson announced that she would be introducing the ‘Tyre Sampson Law’ to improve rider safety on amusement rides in the next legislative session
Sampson’s death was ruled an accident by the Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office
The lawsuit said the defendants failed to warn Sampson about the risks of someone of his size going on the ride and that they did not provide an appropriate restraint system.
Yarnell Sampson, his dad said: ‘I’m trying to give the proper respect to the dead. He deserved that because he didn’t sign up to die.
‘He signed up to ride a ride and have fun and it led up to something else, that was my only child. That was my everything.
‘He would have been 15 years old. He was born Aug. 17, 2007. When he was born, he was a star to me. He always will be a star.’
An investigation into Sampson’s death ruled that the operator of the ride made ‘manual adjustments’ to a pair of seats to allow him to get on the ride.
Exact details of the proposed bill are unclear, as it has yet to be lodged, but it is expected to include not allowing safety sensors to be adjusted adjusted beyond maximum manufacturer settings.
It is also expected to call for an increase in safety signage posting requirements.
Tyre Sampson was an aspiring football player and honor roll student. His life was cut short on March 24 when he plummeted to his death from ICON Free Fall ride in Orlando
The teen’s seat sensors had to be manually altered to be able to fit Sampson and video from the event appears to show the teen’s harness being loose
State-of-the-art sensors monitoring the three-month-old ride would normally have alerted operators to the fact the gap was abnormally large
Thompson said: ‘The things that happened here were out of the ordinary. Seats being adjusted after inspection after a permit – that was out of the ordinary.
‘It was out of the ordinary that the young people who were operating the ride had not been properly trained, that was out of the ordinary.
‘It was out of the ordinary that the signs with regard to height and weight requirements were not posted so that Tyre could make his own decision – that was out of the ordinary.’
If the bill is passed by the legislative body and signed into law, it would go into effect on July 1, 2023.
Sampson had been worried about the harness prior to the ride beginning, his father said, and told his friends sitting next to him to tell his parents that he loved them.
Grieving Yarnell said that Tyre began to panic and shared a chilling premonition with his two best friends, seated next to him on the ride.
Florida Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services investigation into the tragedy revealed the safety sensors had been manually modified to leave a larger gap between the seat and the harness before he fell
The football player’s family is now suing the ride owner, the manufacture, and the landlord for negligence because they didn’t provide a ‘safe’ ride
Inspectors from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services examine the FreeFall ride after Sampson’s death
According to the ride’s operating manual, attendants also must manually check the restraints when loading a guest in, pulling on it to ensure it’s locked in.
The ride will also not ascend unless riders are locked into their seats.
The operator’s manual also suggest for workers to be ‘careful’ and to make sure that ‘large guests fit into the seats.’
The legal representation for The Slingshot Group, the company that owns the ride Sampson fell from, has expressed support for the proposed bill.
A woman who called 911 told a dispatcher that Sampson was facedown, wasn´t responsive and appeared to have broken his arms and legs.
Another man told a 911 dispatcher that the teen had no pulse, with an autopsy later determined Sampson died of blunt force trauma and his death was ruled as an ‘accident’.
In 2021, a maintenance technician who was not properly hooked up to a safety device plunged 225 feet to his death at a neighboring ride at the park, the 450-foot-tall StarFlyer swing ride.
