ORLANDO, Fla. — The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has determined the operator of the Orlando Free Fall, the ride from which 14-year-old tourist Tyre Sampson fell to his death in March, broke numerous laws in operating the ride and is seeking to fine the company over $250,000.
During a Tuesday press conference, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said her department is forwarding its investigative findings to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, which will determine any applicable criminal charges.
The state agency’s nearly eight-month investigation found that Orlando Slingshot changed safety sensors on two of the attraction’s seats so the harnesses could accommodate larger guests and did not properly train its employees how to operate the 430-foot-tall ride.
“The department’s investigation has concluded that Tyre fell from the drop tower due to changes made by the ride operators,” Fried said. “He was sitting in one of two seats where the proximity sensor was manually repositioned to allow a larger restraint opening than the ride’s other seats. Because his seat’s harness proximity sensor had been improperly adjusted, the ride was allowed to commence even though the ride was unsafe and led directly to his fall.”
Fried said her department has issued an administrative complaint alleging multiple state laws were violated in the ride’s operation and is working to fine ride operator Orlando Slingshot for an amount exceeding $250,000, one of the largest fines it has ever issued.
She said the state is also seeking to permanently revoke the ride’s operating permit in the state. Orlando Slingshot had already committed to dismantling the drop tower at the end of the state’s investigation and said in October “there are no plans for the future operation of the Free Fall ride.”
In a statement, Orlando Slingshot attorney Trevor Arnold said the company immediately corrected safety issues identified internally after the accident.
“This included suspending two employees based on the results of our internal investigation,” Arnold said. “We also brought in two outside firms to improve training, maintenance, and safety practices. We took these steps to ensure continued operations conform to applicable standards and recommendations.”
Orlando Slingshot has worked closely with the state’s and Sheriff’s Office’s investigations and continues to support the proposals to strengthen ride safety legislation in the hope they will help prevent future accidents, he said.
Lawyers representing Tyre’s father, Yarnell Sampson, called the agency’s announcement “a significant step toward full accountability for those responsible” for Tyre’s death.
“This week, Tyre’s family will experience their first holiday season without him,” Ben Crump and Bob Hilliard said in a statement. “His family will always have an empty seat at the table – that anguish deserves accountability in the highest sense from the entities responsible for this tragedy.”
The legal team for Tyre’s mother, Nekia Dodd, is “very pleased” with the report’s results and Fried’s actions to hold Orlando Slingshot accountable, attorney Kim Wald said.
“[The $250,000 fine] pales in comparison to the priceless loss of Tyre, but it is one step in the right direction of achieving what Nekia’s goals have been from the very beginning, which is to make rides safer in our country so that no mother really has to experience the anguish that she’s been going through these past few months,” Wald said in an interview.
The investigation’s conclusion is “one more piece of the puzzle” for Dodd to understand and process the accident, Wald said. She added that Dodd and her lawyers were involved in shaping the ride legislation changes Fried introduced Tuesday.
Fried said the investigation found that Orlando Slingshot conducted such “minimal training” for employees running the attraction that it did not even provide a training manual for workers.
“A training manual did not exist,” she said. “Neither the attendants nor the operator had read or seen the manufacturer manual, nor had an operating document been provided to attendants or the operators that were on duty. "
Fried said the ride operator instructed ride attendants to use the modified seats one and two for guests with larger bodies. The state’s preliminary investigation in April found the proximity sensors on these seats’ harnesses had been altered to open inches wider than those on other seats, a change made outside the ride manufacturer’s specifications.
Tyre, a football player from St. Louis, stood 6-foot-2 and weighed 383 pounds, according to his autopsy report. He surpassed the ride’s manufacturer-determined weight limit by nearly 100 pounds.
Tyre slipped out of a 7- to 10-inch gap between the ride’s harness and seat and fell to the ground as the ride neared its end late March 24.
The agriculture department’s probe found ride attendants did not test Tyre’s harness for fit as required by the ride’s operating manual before letting him on the attraction, according to the administrative complaint. It said video showed attendants pulling on Tyre’s harness but not pushing it down.
It also determined the company gave employees just three days of verbal training before assigning them to work at the drop tower and the neighboring Orlando Slingshot ride.
The ride attendant closest to the drop tower’s emergency stop button at the time of the accident was an “unsupervised trainee” on their third day of work, the complaint said.
The agriculture department also has finished an updated legislative framework with nine proposals addressing gaps in state ride safety laws found during the investigation, Fried said. It is an updated version of the legislative framework crafted by her agency in partnership with Orlando legislators and ride safety experts released in July.
On the operations side, the proposals include requiring all rides to undergo commissioning and certification to ensure they are manufactured, assembled, tested and operated following manufacturer’s requirements; mandating ride operators give the agriculture department information from ride manufacturers on restraints and safety systems; and increasing the number of safety system checks engineers perform on rides during annual inspections.
It also would require ride owners to notify the agency of any rider injuries that require emergency attention; establish a minimum standard for employee training and adopt further training rules; require ride operators to post signs with rider safety requirements; and update the law’s definition of “major modifications” for rides to include changes to safety settings.
The framework also proposes clarifying the agency’s authority and increasing the reporting and documentation requirements for ride maintenance and alterations.
Additionally, the agency also wants to add more positions for statewide inspectors who can visit rides unannounced, monitor rides’ operations and ensure employees are properly trained. They would be able to immediately stop unsafe rides from operating and follow up on any necessary safety changes.
State Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, has pledged to make the Tyre Sampson Bill with these recommendations the first one she files next legislative session.
“When the millions of people who visit Florida come to this state, we want them to know that there is oversight, that there is accountability, that there are inspections [and] that there are requirements for training,” Thompson said.
“... And we also want to say to the family of Tyre Sampson that if we could, we would undo what happened to their son, but we can’t,” she continued. “But what we can do is to make sure that our laws will prevent this from happening to anyone else.”
Tyre’s family sued Orlando Slingshot, ICON Park and others associated with the attraction in April.
That suit is ongoing, and Orlando Slingshot has denied the family’s allegations in court.
ICON Park has said the Orlando Slingshot was solely responsible for the attraction and as the company’s landlord, ICON Park “had absolutely no involvement with, or knowledge of, alleged manipulation of any seat on the Free Fall ride.”
