Should Tyre Sampson have been allowed on Orlando ride?

fourteen-year-old tiree

sampson

thrown from a

ride

at icon park being remembered as a gentle giant who loved football was an honorable student the young man had a bright new future tonight a safety-focused video shows worried

ride

rs questioning the protocol fox 35 is investigating how this could

have

happened so here's what we know so far orange county deputies say

tyre

e

sampson

fell from the

orlando

free fall just after 11 o'clock last night. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead and then pronounced dead at 12:30 this afternoon by the sheriff. He said the death was an accident so our team saw ride inspectors at the scene around 1:30. that attraction is still closed tonight Fox 35 News has live coverage of the team Stephanie Buffamonti spoke with a person who witnessed that fall.

We start with Fox 35's Danielle Lama who spoke today with the victim's father. Danielle, the teen's father, says his son began to panic when he began the trip and told his friends that something was missing. good. She now wonders if her son

should

have

been

allowed

to free fall in the first place. My son is six years old. five 340 pound Yarnell Sampson wants to know if his son's size played a role in this tragic accident. She says the 14-year-old boy who aspired to make it to the NFL had

been

turned down at other attractions, this particular attraction decided yes, we are.

I'll take it, come on, go ahead, you know, when no one else let him on, so I wonder what happened between now and then, we'll make him say, come on, you can get on this ride, ride safety consultant Ken Martin , says that. it could be part of the research and just remember that when you get off there is a negative g force versus a positive g force when you are strapped into the seat and that

should

er harness is there to keep you from going off the ride martin says many rides have weight limits , but no one with free fall has answered our questions about what the rules were for getting on.

Riders stay in place with that shoulder harness and no extra belt, that's one of the things I'm interested in. On this particular trip, we have a big guy or big guy reported and the extent to which he lowered the harness on him in a clip of seconds after Samson fell. Ride employees can be heard discussing that state inspectors took a close look at the seat Samson was in. in that they seemed to be taking action and even pulling on the harness, this should never happen to someone else's child again and we are trying to get an idea of ​​what the restrictions are like for these types of fall attractions.

Dollywood has a drop attraction built by the same manufacturer as the free fall, the park says in a rider safety document that taller guests may not be eligible due to the nature of the restraint system. Back to you, Danielle, thank you. Orlando Free Fall is a brand new attraction at Icon. park just opened in late December and at 430 feet tall it is the world's tallest free-standing drop tower taking people slowly into the sky and then dropping them at speeds of up to 75 miles per hour our live team coverage continues tonight with fox Stephanie Buffamonti from 35 and she will be live tonight at Icon Park so Stephanie you talked to someone who witnessed this fall that I did and I just want to show you something too so like you said the attraction is closed tonight, you can see it's dark. so is the slingshot next to it, but behind it you could see that the swings were lit green and are actually working tonight, but yes, I spoke to a woman who was watching the drop tower just before witnessing that fatal fall that He claims to have seen 14 year-old Tiree Sampson fall from his seat and die at Orlando's new free-fall tower.

Last night she saw an adult with him crying and devastated and says she feels really bad for the teen's family and friends who saw her loved one. lying dead on the ground after they were here to have a good time at Icon Park, she was thinking about going on that ride right before this happened and now she's terrified to think it could have been her. I've been really broke since then. night, just getting that vision out of my head and that sound, it was horrible, it gives me chills just talking about it because I think to myself it could have been me, it could have been my little cousin, it could have been my mom, that could have been someone i know you know it's scary you don't think about those things when you're riding the attractions you trust it's going to be safe we're still waiting for state inspectors to tell us exactly what went wrong here reporting live in

orlando

stephanie bemonti news fox 35 thank you stephanie, we will continue to follow this developing story as soon as we hear back from ride inspectors or learn new details about what caused the equipment to go down, we will update you on air and online.