ORLANDO, Fla. — One simple thing might have saved 14-year-old Tyre Sampson’s life: a seat belt.
A seat belt could have stopped him from slipping out of his harness on the Orlando Free Fall at ICON Park on March 24, potentially preventing his death, said Brian Avery, a lecturer at the University of Florida and independent ride safety consultant.
“A safety belt or a latching mechanism would have [also] provided an indicator that Tyre Sampson was not an appropriate size to ride,” he said, adding that a harness isn’t foolproof protection.
According to family members, Tyre weighed between 330 or 340 pounds, about 50 pounds over the ride manufacturer’s maximum weight limit for the attraction on International Drive.
The state’s accident investigation has yet to publicly determine what exactly happened, but independent ride experts say things like Tyre exceeding the ride’s weight limit and a video showing his harness in an improper position before the ride started likely contributed to the fatal accident.
His death demonstrates the need for stronger ride safety oversight at the state and federal levels, experts said, and officials have signaled they will explore strengthening applicable laws to expand the state’s regulatory power over such rides.
Some drop tower rides at major amusement parks, like one at Universal’s Islands of Adventure three miles north of ICON Park, include a seat belt in addition to over-the-shoulder harnesses. But the safety feature isn’t required in rides of this type, Avery said.
Under Florida’s statutes, ride operators are given a lot of autonomy over how they operate their rides and train their employees, as long as the attractions meet the state’s and manufacturer’s safety standards.
“A vast majority of the statutory oversight refers back to following the manufacturing guidelines, so our power is limited on following the manufacturer,” Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said during a press conference held about the ICON Park accident Friday. “... We have no authority to question a manufacturer’s protocols unless we have received some type of consumer complaints, and then we follow up.”
A letter from the Austria-based ride manufacturer of the Free Fall, Funtime Handels GmbH, said the ride did not need seat belts because its restraint system had two independent locking devices and shoulder restraints that surpassed safety requirements. The letter was released by the state along with the ride’s operations manual this week.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs has not released additional information on the ongoing investigation. Tyre’s father declined a request for comment through his lawyer, Ben Crump, and representatives for the SlingShot Group did not respond to questions.
Experts identify safety hazards
Footage taken minutes before the accident shows Tyre’s harness does not appear to be properly secured, Avery said, and that combined with no secondary mechanism, like a safety belt, could have led to him slipping down and out of the restraint.
A preliminary accident report released by the state showed Tyre’s harness was “in a down and locked position” as the ride stopped around 11 p.m. that night. Though the harness may have been secured before the ride started, footage showed it appeared to be secured improperly, according to Avery, who is not involved in the state’s investigation.
“It was resting on [Tyre’s] stomach ... as opposed to being closer to the seat pan, or resting in [his] crotch area,” he said.
Before letting Tyre on the ride, employees should have weighed him, Avery said. Weight restrictions are strict guidelines established by the ride manufacturer that ride operators cannot modify.
It is unclear if employees weighed Tyre before allowing him on the ride. Ride operators are not mandated to weigh guests to make sure they meet ride requirements, Avery said, but it should be common practice in the industry. In many cases he has investigated, ride operators estimated riders’ weight by sight and risked their safety, he said.
In an interview with Spectrum News 13, ride safety inspector Ken Martin with KRM Consulting said employees should not have let Tyre, a tourist from St. Louis, on the ride because he did not fit the restraints.
“They failed miserably,” he told the news station.
Video of the accident shows another another passenger on the Orlando Free Fall asking why the ride did not have seat belts attaching the harness to the seat between riders’ legs. A ride attendant told her, “there ain’t any,” before tugging the handles of two other riders’ harnesses to check they were locked.
The footage does not capture employees checking Tyre’s harness. After the accident, another employee asked the ride attendant if he checked Tyre’s restraint, and he said he had.
John Stine, SlingShot Group’s sales and marketing director, told Spectrum News 13 shortly after the accident that the ride is operated with “all the safety precautions in mind” and it does not have seat belts because the “safety harness that goes over the chest of the rider is sufficient.” He did not respond to requests for further comment.
Ride manufacturer Funtime also did not respond to questions.
Earlier this week, the Tennessee theme park Dollywood temporarily stopped operating its Drop Line drop tower, which is a different ride model than the Orlando Free Fall but manufactured by the same company. That was done as a precaution until additional details about the ICON Park accident emerge.
Videos of the ride show it similarly has over-the-shoulder harnesses without seat belts but does not tilt riders forward like the Orlando Free Fall.
The Orlando tower has been closed indefinitely since the accident. The Orlando SlingShot, located a few yards away from the drop tower, is not operating after ICON Park sent a request to the SlingShot Group to close the ride until it was proven to be safe.
“We are fully cooperating with the authorities at the state and local levels who are investigating this tragic incident,” SlingShot Group CEO Ritchie Armstrong said in a statement Tuesday. “We plan on providing additional information in the coming days, as we learn more.”
Accident could lead to stronger laws
Tyre’s death may lead to significant changes to the laws governing the way amusement rides are regulated and inspected in Florida, something that experts like Avery and Martin say they have advocated for consistently.
Florida is one of just 29 states with amusement ride safety programs, Richard Kimsey, director of the Division of Consumer Services, said Friday while appearing along with Fried and State Rep. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando.
Fried said any necessary legislative changes could come after the investigation concludes. Thompson said she would support a bill pushing for tighter safety measures.
“We will immediately make changes to our rules, if needed under our existing authorities, as well as pursue statutory changes with our legislative partners if necessary,” Fried said.
Her statement comes after State Sen. Randolph Bracy, D-Orlando, addressed a letter to her Tuesday calling for an overhaul of the state’s safety rules.
“I urge the Department to: reexamine and implement minimum safety requirements for fixed amusement parks, implement secondary or additional safety restraints to quickly respond to mechanical and human errors, and require more robust peer training and safety protocols to increase accountability by amusement park operators,” he wrote.
Though Florida’s attractions regulations are robust compared with other states’ rules, the state has room for improvement in areas such as standardizing training and communicating ride information to the public, Avery said.
Ride safety could be further improved if the federal government adopted nationwide standards, he said.
There is currently no federal oversight for fixed site amusement park rides, or those that remain in one physical location, but ride manufacturers follow industry guidelines such as those set by the American Society for Testing and Materials.
“If it’s shared as an industry, we can build better standards so that we can further close loopholes and gaps so that more patrons experience safer rides,” he said.
Calls mount for the ride to shut down
As Tyre’s family members grieve the 14-year-old they say was destined for football stardom, many others in solidarity with the family are asking for the Orlando Free Fall to be shut down permanently.
Posters displayed at Tyre’s makeshift ICON Park memorial contained hundreds of signatures from passersby, with many writing variations of “shut this ride down.” As of Friday, over 40,000 people had signed an online petition calling for justice.
Bracy also asked the state to close the attraction for good in his letter to Fried.
“No human being should experience the plight of tragedy that could have been avoided by ensuring our amusement parks are operating at the highest levels of safety and care,” he wrote.
Fried said any decisions about the ride’s future will be made after the investigation ends.
In his experience, Avery said rides that have had accidents typically reopen after an investigation and any applicable repairs or modifications.
“There’s so many variables to factor between each ride,” he said.
On a trip to International Drive this week, Esther Waitherero and her three children rode the Orlando StarFlyer, the only SlingShot Group ride currently operating near ICON Park, unaware of the recent accident on the Orlando Free Fall.
The mom from Wichita, Kansas, said she probably would not have allowed her 6- and 13-year-old children on the ride had she known about Tyre’s death beforehand.
“Because [my children and I] are sitting in different places, I was worried, like, ‘Did they really make sure that that thing is latched?’” she said. “... I go there knowing accidents happen, but hoping that it’ll never happen to us.”
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