ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – An evidence hearing for Wednesday has been canceled for lawyers for the family of a 14-year-old boy who fell to his death from the Orlando FreeFall attraction last year.
Tyre Sampson was riding the thrill ride, known as the world’s tallest free-standing drop tower, on March 24, 2022, when he fell as the ride was plummeting down. The ride at ICON Park took guests up into the air before dropping over 400 feet at 70 mph.
A lawsuit was filed in April 2021 alleging the ride’s operators should have known that riders could be “subject to unreasonably dangerous and foreseeable risks, and that serious injury and death of the occupants in the ride could result.” It also points out that the ride did not have seat belts, which would have cost operators of Orlando FreeFall $22 per seat for a combined $660 for all seats.
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This comes after the family reached a settlement in March with both ICON Park and the company that operates the ride. However, there are nearly another dozen defendants in the lawsuit, including the manufacturer and installers.
An independent forensic engineering firm hired in the investigation into Sampson’s fatal fall found the operator manually adjusted the sensors in the seat he was in, which made the ride unsafe. The firm’s 14-page report determined the ride itself did not have an electrical or mechanical failure, but a manual adjustment in the seat he was in allowed the ride to operate even when it was unsafe.
Florida lawmakers are also set to take a final vote as early as Wednesday on a new bill, named after the teen.
The Tyre Sampson Safety Act calls for several changes, including a requirement for a seat belt and harness for any ride that goes over 100 feet.
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