The parents of a 14-year-old Missouri boy who fell to his death from an Orlando amusement park ride in 2022 have won a $310 million verdict against the...
FILE: The Orlando Free Fall drop tower in ICON Park in Orlando is pictured on Monday, March 28, 2022. T ORLANDO, Fla. — The parents of a 14-year-old Missouri boy who fell to his death from an Orlando amusement park ride in 2022 have won a $310 million verdict against the attraction’s Austrian builder.
Late Thursday, the Orange County jury ordered that the manufacturer Funtime pay $155 million each to Tyre Sampson’s parents, Nekia Dodd and Yarnell Sampson. He died on March 24, 2022, after falling 70 feet from the Orlando Free Fall ride at Icon Park. The trial lasted only a day as Funtime never appeared in court to defend itself.Icon Park, which rented the ride’s space to Orlando Slingshot, the ride’s owner and operator, had already settled with Sampson’s family for an undisclosed amount.
Sampson, a football standout who stood 6 foot, 2 inches tall and weighed 380 pounds, was visiting Orlando on spring break from the St. Louis area when he went with friends to the downtown amusement park. They rode the Orlando Free Fall, which placed 30 riders in seats attached to a tower, secured them with a shoulder harness and then dropped them 430 feet . It didn’t have seat belts, something most drop rides have as an additional safety measure.Because of Sampson’s size, the harness didn’t lock properly and he was ejected from his seat when the ride braked 70 feet from the ground.
His parents argued that Orlando Slingshot and Funtime should have warned their son about the risks of someone his size going on the ride and didn’t provide an appropriate restraint system. Adding seat belts would have cost $660.
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