The family of the 14-year-old Missouri teenager, who fell and died on an amusement park ride in Orlando, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit , according to NBC News.
Tyre Sampson died on March 24 after plummeting from a free-fall attraction at ICON Park. In the lawsuit, the family says Tyre’s life was cut short unnecessarily.
Yarnell Sampson and Nekia Dodd, Tyre’s parents, filed the lawsuit in Orange County’s 9th Judicial Circuit Court.
Last week, reports claim that the harness was manually adjusted prior to Tyre boarding the ride.
The defendants in the case are Orlando Eagle Drop Slingshot LLC, the company that owns the Free Fall, and ICON Park. Also, the Austrian company that designed and manufactured the ride, Funtime Handels GMBH and Gerstlauer Amusement Rides GMBH, was named as defendants in the lawsuit, according to NBC News.
Bystanders at the amusement park caught video of Tyre, moments before his death.
From NBC News:
“Tyre was ... an honor-roll student and football player. Despite his prowess on the football field, he was known as a kind-hearted person who cared about others. Tyre had a long and prosperous life in front of him that was cut short by this tragic event.”o signs marking height and weight restrictions.”
“ICON DEFENDANTS owed a duty to its customers, including Plaintiffs’ decedent, TYRE SAMPSON, to exercise reasonable care in operating, managing, maintaining, designing, inspecting, constructing, testing, fixing, and/or controlling the amusement park rides located on its premises, including the subject Free Fall amusement park ride,” the lawsuit stated.
Defendants also failed to train “employees, contractors, and agents as to the proper and safe height and weight restrictions for the Free Fall amusement park ride,” the suit said.
The lawsuit also alleged that while most rides similar to the Free Fall are equipped with a harness and seat belt, the Free Fall ride did not have seat belts.
The approximate cost to add $22 seat belts to the ride’s 30 seats is $660, the suit said.
Ben Crump, the attorney for Tyre’s parents, according to NBC News, said the ride manufacturer did not put in safety features, which led to Tyre falling nearly a hundred feet onto hard pavement after he was ejected from the ride.
The commissioner of the state’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer services said adjustments made to the seat where Tyre was sitting resulted in his restraint opening, leading to his death. The department is still continuing to investigate the incident.
More from NBC News:
Photos and video posted online apparently show that Tyre was not fully buckled in, with a safety harness sitting far above those of the other riders.
In video of the incident obtained by NBC News, a voice is heard asking: “Why doesn’t this have the little clicky click to it, like the seat belt?”
As the ride lifts off, a voice from the ground is heard shouting: “Hey, did you check your seatbelt on the left side? Seat belt! Seat belt!”
Tyre was visiting Florida for spring break with his football team. He was a straight-A student who “had a bright future ahead” and was never in trouble, his uncle Carl Sampson said.