Family Sues Over Death Of 14-Year-Old Tyre Sampson Who Fell From Florida Amusement Park Ride

Tyre Sampson

Family Sues Over Death Of 14-Year-Old Tyre Sampson Who Fell From Florida Amusement Park Ride

The parents of the 14-year-old boy who died last month after falling from a Florida amusement park, ride filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday (Apr. 25), accusing the park, ride operator and manufacturer of negligence.

As previously reported, Tyre Sampson tragically fell to his death from a ride at Orlando’s ICON Park on March 24. The 8th grader was in Orlando visiting from Missouri for his Spring Break. The incident occurred while Sampson was riding the Free Fall ride, which stands at 430 feet. Reportedly, it’s the world’s tallest freestanding drop tower. Following the fall, Sampson was transported to the hospital, where he died from his injuries, according to the Orange County sheriff’s office.

Tyre Sampson

The lawsuit claims the ride was “unreasonably dangerous” and that Tyre Sampson died as a direct result of the negligence. Multiple business connected to the ride are named in the suit including: ICON Park, which leased the space; the Slingshot Group, which owns and operated the ride; Funtime Handels GmbH, the Austrian company that manufactured the ride; and Keator Construction, which built the ride.

Attorney Michael Haggard told sources,

“It could have been preventable at any stage. There are multiple failures from the minute this was engineered to 11 p.m. that fateful night.”

According to the lawsuit, Tyre’s family and attorneys allege that the companies involved failed to warn Tyre of the ride’s height and weight restrictions, failed to properly train their employees, and failed to provide an appropriate restraint system such as a secondary seat belt. The family’s attorney Ben Crump had this to say in a statement:

“The defendants in Tyre’s case showed negligence in a multitude of ways. From the ride and seat manufacturers and the installer to the owners and operators, the defendants had more than enough chances to enact safeguards, such as seatbelts, that could have prevented Tyre’s death. They didn’t, and their poor decisions resulted in deadly consequences for a promising young man and lifelong pain for his family.”

Ben Crump

An accident report released last week found that the sensors on Tyre’s seat were also manually adjusted, which allowed the ride to operate while his seat had a restraint opening almost twice as large as normal even though it was unsafe. According to the report, the average restraint opening is about 3 inches, however, on two modified seats, the gap was about 6 inches and it may have expanded even further during the ride.