Fourteen-year-old Tyre Sampson was a talented student athlete, much loved by his family and looking forward to starting high school with a guaranteed spot on the football team. On social media, friends and family described a “gentle giant” who carried a straight-A average in middle school and dreamed of playing in the NFL. He had reason to believe he might someday make it.
All that potential, all that hope, crashed to the ground last month when Tyre — who lived in St. Louis, and was visiting Orlando, Florida, on spring break — slipped out of a seat on a drop-tower attraction in Orlando’s ICON Park and fell to his death.
In the aftermath of a stunning tragedy, the first instinct after the initial horror and shock is to ask why. What could have been done differently? What might have saved Tyre’s life? Operator error might have been a significant factor: The manual for the ride, known as the Orlando Free Fall, specified a weight limit of 287 pounds. Family members said Tyre stood 6-feet-5 and exceeded that by more than 50 pounds. Ride safety experts have told the Sentinel they believed the ride should have had additional restraints as well, providing an extra layer of protection if the shoulder harness failed.
It may be a long time, however, before the full truth is known. That shouldn’t stop Florida officials from asking what more they can do to prevent another tragedy such as this one — and protect other families from unimaginable heartbreak.
That starts with a close examination of the circumstances around Tyre’s death. There are two obvious routes of inquiry. First, was the ride unsafe? State inspection records show that the Orlando Free Fall was installed in late December. It would have been inspected again in a few months, but now state inspectors will go over it thoroughly to determine whether there was a particular failure — and why the shoulder harness appeared to be locked in position even after Tyre slipped out of it.
The most obvious question is whether a ride like this should be allowed to operate without a backup safety restraint such as a lap belt. And until that question is answered, it makes sense to shut down similar rides that are operating across Florida. If Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried doesn’t have the authority to do that, she should identify the person who does.
The state should also investigate whether there was any equipment failure on this particular ride — and if there was, whether there are gaps in the state’s inspection procedures that should be rectified.
The biggest question, however, may be whether operator error played a role in last week’s tragedy. Records released by the state show that two employees — including the ride operator named in the report of Tyre’s death — had been trained as recently as February. But those reports are sketchy, offering only a list of general training topics such as “emergency procedures,” “generalized safety procedures” and “specific duties” signed off with the ride operator’s initials. The manual for the Free Fall does caution against riders who are too big to fit in the seats. But does the state know for sure that operators for the Orlando ride were trained with that level of specificity? Demanding more detailed records from companies that operate rides like this one could encourage more thorough training.
And as the state reviews this case, it should also be asking whether changes are needed on a larger scale. It’s notable that Florida’s toughest inspection laws target rides operated by smaller companies — theme parks with more than 1,000 employees have less oversight, and detailed reports of injuries or deaths are not considered public record. A 2020 Sentinel investigation uncovered the reality behind some of the terse summary reports, including a little boy whose foot and leg were crushed while riding Universal’s ET attraction. The publicly available summary? The boy suffered “foot pain.” A 47-year-old man who broke his neck on Universal’s Punga Racers had his injury reported as “numbness.” Those are just a few of the drastically understated injury reports the Sentinel uncovered.
The families of people injured at major theme parks deserve at least as much information as Tyre’s family is receiving. State leaders should push for a law change that would make reports of theme-park injuries more transparent. There’s no good reason to hold them to a lesser standard than attractions like the Orlando Flyer.
None of this will ease the heartbreak of those who loved Tyre; they will feel his loss, and wonder about the man he might have become, forever. But his death throws a harsh light on the state’s duty to protect other families. As the truth unfolds in this tragedy, state officials should look for gaps in Florida’s safety net for amusement rides, and find ways to protect those who come to Florida seeking fun and a little adventure.
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