In Orange County, Florida, a jury delivered a $310 million damage award to the family of 14-year-old Tyre Sampson, who plunged to his death from the FreeFall drop tower ride at ICON Park in March 2022. The negligence of the ride’s design and safety by the Austrian manufacturer, Funtime Handels, were the premises of the lawsuit.
Tyre was visiting Orlando for spring break when he fell from the 430-foot-tall ride after slipping out of the harness while it was descending. It turned out that the teenager, weighing about 380 pounds, weighed more than the maximum allowed on the ride, which was 287 pounds. The weight restriction was not posted, but two seats had been adapted to hold bigger riders so that Tyre could fit into his seat.
Funtime Handels did not attend the trial, and the jury gave $155 million to Tyre’s parents, Nekia Dodd and Yarnell Sampson. The lawsuit was based on the argument that adding seatbelts at $22 per seat would have prevented the tragedy.
Following the passing of Tyre, the amusement ride FreeFall was disassembled in 2023, and new legislation that names him was signed by the state of Florida in which there would be strengthened laws about Florida’s amusement ride safety codes. The family settled other suits against ICON Park and the owners of the ride before having this trial so that it would be their last.
Michael Haggard, the family attorney, decried that the company failed to address issues of safety and termed it a “calamity of errors and negligence.”
A verdict to the Sampson family brings some closure, in hopes that their loss will lead to safer standards that will prevent another such disaster in the future.
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