The father of a 14-year-old boy, who authorities say fatally fell from a ride at an Orlando, Florida amusement park Thursday night, said his son was “panicking” as the ride ascended and instructed his friend to tell his parents that he loved them if he did not survive.
Yarnell Sampson told WOFL that his 14-year-old son, Tyre Sampson of St. Louis, Missouri, was in Orlando as part of a trip through a football program when Thursday’s tragedy occurred on the Orlando Free Fall ride at ICON Park.
Yarnell Sampson described the utter despair he feels over his son’s death, WESH reported:
It felt like somebody hit me so hard in my stomach. I just lost, I lost, lost wind. And the pain behind it could never be taken away, and sorry’s not gonna take it back and no monies, no nothing in the world to replace the young man. And it’s just sad, a young man’s bright future was taken away from him over a ride, an amusement park.
He told WOFL that his 6-foot 4-inch 340-pound son was denied entry to other rides but, for some reason, was allowed on the Orlando Free Fall.
“This one particular ride said, ‘We can take you, come on! Get on!’ No one else allowed him to get on the ride, so I’m wondering what happened between now and then that made them say, ‘Come on, get this ride!” Sampson said.
He noted that his son knew something was amiss at the start of the ride, which he was on with his two best friends:
He was panicking when he was going up. When the ride took off, that’s when he was feeling uncomfortable. He was like, ‘What’s going on?’ That’s when he started freaking out, and he was explaining to his friend next to him, ‘I don’t know man. If I don’t make it down, please tell my Mom and Daddy I love them.’ For him to say something like that, he must have felt something.
Video from the lead-up to the incident apparently showed a passenger asking questions about seatbelts.
“Why doesn’t this have like the little clicky click, like the seatbelt?” she seems to ask.
Following the incident, a crew member seems to ask other workers if they followed protocol.
“You guys are sure you checked him?” she seems to ask.
Sampson said his son was an honor roll student with a bright future who had dreams of playing in the National Football League. He added that Tyre was a team player and a selfless individual.
“This should never happen to anyone else’s child ever again, and if I have anything to do with this, it will not happen ever again,” he vowed.
On Saturday, Ben Crump Law announced that attorney Ben Crump, who represented Geroge Floyd’s family, and Bob Hilliard of Hilliard Martinez Gonzales, were separately retained by Tyre’s parents.
In a now-deleted press release from October of last year, ICON park said the Orlando Free Fall was set to open last December and stand as “the world’s tallest free-standing drop tower,” Breitbart News reported.
The park has indefinitely closed the Orlando Free Fall and another ride called the Orlando Slingshot, said Sales and Marketing Director John Stine of the Slingshot Group of Companies, which owns and operates the Orlando Free Fall.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) is investigating the incident, WOFL. FDACS released a report Friday that showed “both the drop tower and slingshot “super rides” were inspected, approved and permitted Dec. 20, 2021, the same day they opened,” WKMG-TV reported.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.