Tyre Sampson's father, attorneys speak about teen's deadly fall from Orlando thrill ride
Published Date: 4/26/2022
Source: 10 Tampa Bay
The parents of the teen who died after falling from an Orlando thrill ride last month are seeking justice for their son's tragic death through a lawsuit filed Monday in Orange County. Nekia Dodd and Yarnell Sampson, the parents of 14-year-old Tyre Sampson, are suing several companies related to the Orlando FreeFall tower ride, including ICON Park and ride operating company The Slingshot Group. “The defendants in Tyre’s case showed negligence in a multitude of ways,” Attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Tyre's father, wrote in a statement. The civil lawsuit makes a number of claims about the events leading up to the teen's death. One is that most free-fall rides have both a shoulder harness and a seatbelt but ICON Park's ride, which is considered the world’s tallest free-standing drop tower, only had an over-the-shoulder harness. The complaint goes on to say that seatbelts for this ride would have cost $22 per seat for a combined total of $660. The lawsuit also claims that no height or weight restrictions were posted on the ticket counter and that Tyre, who was approximately 6-feet, 2-inches tall and 380 pounds, was not told he was too big to get on the ride. For context, the ride's operations and maintenance manual — to which it must adhere — lists the "maximum passenger weight" as 130kg, or roughly 287 pounds. The complaint includes information revealed in a report last week that improper manual adjustments were made to the FreeFall tower ride ahead of the teen's tragic death, including modifications that allowed the ride to operate without Sampson's harness properly closed. MORE: https://bit.ly/3MCnpU5