ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – An Orange County jury on Thursday ruled that the family of a 14-year-old boy who fell to his death from the Orlando Freefall attraction in March 2022 would be paid $310 million by the ride’s manufacturer.
Tyre Sampson was riding the attraction, once known as the world’s tallest free-standing drop tower but has since been dismantled, on March 24, 2022, when he fell as the thrill ride was plummeting down. The ride took guests into the air over 400 feet before dropping at 70 mph.
The wrongful death lawsuit, filed in April 2022, alleged 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 pointed 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.
The family reached a settlement with both ICON Park and the company that operates the ride, but the boy’s parents pursued their lawsuit against the ride manufacturers, Funtime Handels and Gerstlauer Amusement Rides.
The boy’s mother and father will each receive $155 million from the ride manufacturer.
“I don’t wish this on any parent, to lose a child is the worst, worst thing that could happen to any parent in the world,” said Nekia Dodd, Sampson’s mother. “I have a child I can’t physically touch. I can’t hug him. I can’t kiss him. Everything is a memory.
Representatives from Funtime Handels, the manufacturer behind the Orlando Freefall, were not in the courtroom. It was the jury’s responsibility to determine how much money should be given to the family. They heard from the teen’s mother, father and older brother about the emotional and physical toll the death has taken on them.
“They robbed me, they robbed him, they robbed us,” Dodd said on the stand. “I’m now left with memories. Like what would he be doing now? That’s unfair. That’s unfair. That’s unfair. Especially with the kind of kid he was, that’s unfair.”
“I lost my hair. I lost my teeth. I lost 30 pounds of weight,” Tyre Sampson’s father Yarnell Sampson said.
“This was the only break he didn’t spend with me ... I wish he did spend spring break with me because he’d still be alive, but he was a kid. He wanted to have fun.”
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The ride was new to ICON Park and was open for several months before the boy’s death.
“They built the highest tower, the most dangerous tower, they didn’t install a $10 seat belt,” Attorney Kimberly Wald told the jury.
Attorney Ben Crump released a statement Thursday regarding the outcome of the trial:
This verdict is a step forward in holding corporations accountable for the safety of their products. The jury’s decision confirms what we have long argued: Tyre’s death was the result of blatant negligence and a failure to prioritize safety over profits. The ride’s manufacturers neglected their duty to protect passengers, and today’s outcome ensures they face the consequences of those decisions.
We hope this case serves as a wake-up call for the entire industry to implement stricter safety measures and oversight to prevent such tragedies from happening again. Tyre’s legacy will be a safer future for riders everywhere.
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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 Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services Nikki Fried said during a news conference that the operator of the Orlando FreeFall made “manual adjustments to the ride resulting in it being unsafe” and allowed the harness’ restraint opening to be “almost double” of the normal opening range.
A report showed the harness sensor of the seat Sampson was in was “manually loosened, adjusted, and tightened to allow a restraint opening of nearly 7 inches.”
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In May 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Tyre Sampson Act into law. The legislation includes requirements for a seat belt and harness for any ride that goes over 100 feet and for all rides to be regularly commissioned, certified and tested by a separate regulatory agency.
In addition, amusement ride operators would have a certain timeframe to report if there was an accident and the state could reserve the right to impound it if necessary.
The law also allows the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to conduct unannounced inspections for specific purposes.
Dodd, Nekia et al vs Gerstlauer Amusement Rides GMBH et al
— Ninth Circuit Court of FL (@NinthCircuitFL) December 4, 2024
A jury trial is scheduled for tomorrow - December 5 - at 8:45 a.m. in courtroom 19B.
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