The family of 14-year-old Tyre Sampson, who died after falling from an amusement park ride, is now filing a wrongful death lawsuit.
The lawsuit is claiming that the Freefall ride at ICON Park, in Orlando, Florida was “extremely dangerous” and Tyre Sampson’s death could have been prevented, according to Fox 2 St. Louis.
“That brings the manufacturer, the park operator, and the ride operator into the case claiming both negligence and product liability in the design of the ride,” Michael Haggard of Haggard Law Firm said.
The lawsuit also claims that the operators failed to safely operate the ride, failed to warn Sampson of the correct height and weight, and much more.
“Nobody weighed him, there were no signs or anything like that so it was just a series of awful mistakes that at any point in time in that timeline someone had been reasonable and done the right thing, this tragedy would have never occurred,” Haggard said.
Authorities have stated that Sampson was not properly secured in his harness on the ride, per Fox 2 St. Louis.
Sampson was around 6’2″ and weighed about 380 pounds. He planned on playing football in high school this fall.
Haggard went into more detail as to how the ride became unsafe due to certain adjustments that were made.
“At the top, a rare design is to tip the riders to a 30-degree angle having them face the ground and then 75 miles an hour to an abrupt stop. What they knew and they failed to tell anyone about is that a secondary restraint system should be employed,” he said.
The attorney for the ride operator said that they followed all safety measures given by the manufacturer.
