Mother of teen killed in plunge from Florida theme park ride speaks out as family file wrongful death suit

The mother of Tyre Sampson has said the death of her son, who died after falling from a Florida thrill ride last month, could have been prevented.

Nekia Dodd, who was speaking after the announcement of a lawsuit filed against the owner of the Orlando FreeFall ride and others on Monday, told Good Morning America that her son’s death “could’ve been prevented”.

“This could’ve been prevented ... it should’ve been prevented,” said Ms Dodd, who pointed to allegedly insufficient safety checks on Sampson’s seat. “So as an operator, you have a job to check those rides, you know.”

His mother went on to say how a video allegedly taken by a bystander on 24 March showed Sampson’s seat with an opening multipole inches larger than that of other customers on the 430-foot (131-meter) attraction.

That allowed him to “slip” through the gap between the restraint harness and his seat, causing his death, as an initial report into the death found.

“The video I saw, that was not done,” said Ms Dodd of the checks, as ABC 7 News reported.  “And if it was done, it should’ve been done more than once, you know.”

Her comments came as a family attorney, Ben Crump, announced a lawsuit against the owner of the Orlando FreeFall, Orlando Slingshot, for negligence. The operators, the ICON Orlando park, are also named.

“The defendants in Tyre’s case showed negligence in a multitude of ways,” said Mr Crump. “From the ride and seat manufacturers and the installer to the owners and operators, the defendants had more than enough chances to enact safeguards, such as seatbelts, that could have prevented Tyre’s death.”

That allegedly included the possibility to install seatbelts on the ride, which was not done despite costing $660 (£523), the lawsuit claimed. The ride is mechanically operated with restraints controlled by sensors.

Last week, an official report said Sampson “was not properly secured in the seat” and that a safety sensor had been “manually adjusted” to increase the gap between the restraint harness and the seat so that he could fit in. That was described as being a “operator error”.

Sampson, who weighed 380 lbs (172kg) and was six feet two inches in height, was thought to be bigger than the maximum sized passenger on the ride’s operation manual, but was allowed to ride, however.

The report also said there were many other “potential contributions” to the accident and that a full review of the ride’s design and operations was needed.

“He could have been a doctor, lawyer, astronaut, anything besides being an athlete,” said the teenager’s father Yarnell Sampson on Tuesday in an interview with NBC 5. “That was just one part of his life.

“Orlando Slingshot continues to fully cooperate with the state during its investigation, and we will continue to do so until it has officially concluded,” said the ride’s owner, Orlando Slingshot, in a statement to the news outlet. “We reiterate that all protocols, procedures and safety measures provided by the manufacturer of the ride were followed.”

The Independent has approached ICON for comment.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.