Trial begins in lawsuit over teen's deadly plummet from Orlando theme park attraction

Cristóbal Reyes, Orlando Sentinel on Dec 5, 2024

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ORLANDO, Fla. — The 40-story-high Orlando drop tower on which Tyre Sampson perished has been dismantled. New laws are in place to ensure amusement ride safety. Now, finally, the family of the 14-year-old whose death horrified the world and changed an industry will get its day in court.

Jury selection began Thursday in the family’s wrongful death lawsuit over Sampson’s 2022 plunge from the Orlando FreeFall, a ride he was allowed to board despite exceeding its weight restrictions.

The FreeFall — considered at the time the world’s tallest drop tower ride at 430 feet — had an overhead seat harness but no seatbelt, unlike most other such rides. That caused Tyre, who stood over six feet tall and weighed 380 pounds, to fall more than 70 feet to his death after slipping off the ride when it suddenly braked following its rapid descent.

The lawsuit names Funtime, the FreeFall’s Austrian-based manufacturer, and German company Gerstlauer Amusement Rides, which according to court filings was responsible for designing and inspecting the ride’s seats and harnesses.

The companies are accused of neglecting to advise the ride’s owner, Orlando Eagle Drop Slingshot, to post height and weight restrictions and failing to install “appropriate restraint systems” on the ride. The complaint further accuses ADP & Associates Professional Inspections of not properly inspecting the ride before Tyre rode it.

The lawsuit was brought by Tyre’s parents, Nekia Dodd and Yarnell Sampson, with trial expected to last several days.

The trial comes 33 months after Tyre’s fateful ride on the FreeFall, which was dismantled following public outcry sparked by his death and subsequent state reports that found no evidence of “physical or mechanical failure” on the ride. Rather, investigators determined harnesses on specific seats were manually altered to allow them to open to “almost double the range,” allowing Tyre to board the ride despite not being properly secured in the seat.

In February 2023, Orlando Eagle Drop Slingshot paid $250,000 to the Florida Department of Agriculture as part of a settlement that further forbade the company to operate the FreeFall again and ordered it to “not apply or re-apply for a permit to do so” in the future. A month later, the ride owner and ICON Park — where the FreeFall was located next to another ride operated by the company — agreed to an undisclosed settlement, and were dropped as defendants in the wrongful death lawsuit.

The settlement was announced as construction crews worked to dismantle the FreeFall. “The ride is coming down, I’m thankful for that. But, you know, my son isn’t coming back,” Dodd told reporters at the time.

At the time of the tragedy, Tyre was staying with a family friend on a visit to Central Florida from St. Louis, Missouri, where he was an honor roll student and talented football player. Disturbing video of the fall and its aftermath went viral on social media, attracting national headlines. An autopsy report said he died of blunt force trauma.

The incident and subsequent reports on safety failings by ride operators led to the Tyre Sampson Act, a pair of bills unanimously approved by the Florida Legislature in 2023 that closed gaps in ride safety laws. Filed by state Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, the law prevents attraction operators from making unauthorized adjustments to a ride’s restraint system and requires them to submit more detailed safety and operational documentation to the state.

Additionally, the act broadened the state agriculture department’s oversight, giving it authority to establish minimum training standards and conduct unannounced ride inspections to identify potential hazards. The law applies to Florida attractions with fewer than 1,000 employees but specifically exempts Walt Disney World, Universal and SeaWorld — allowing them to conduct their own inspections.

Ironically, companion legislation shields records in an active investigation into a ride from public disclosure, contending that “the premature release of such records,” like those that surfaced during the probe of Tyre’s death, “could frustrate or thwart” the inquiry. Thompson said at the time that delaying release of those records, while they sparked immediate action after Tyre’s death, “is just to make sure that we’ve left no stone unturned before we present to the public.”

While the family lauded the safety measures in the law, Michael Haggard, the lawyer who at one point represented Dodd, blasted the records legislation after its passage.

“If a tragedy happens like this again, what a shame that the media isn’t going to be able to cover it, get those documents, so that the public knows whether these things are dangerous or not,” Haggard said in a May 2023 interview.

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