Seven months after Tyre Sampson tragically lost his life while riding a Slingshot FreeFall ride, the attraction is being removed.
Sampson was just 14 years old when a ride operator permitted him to get on the lift, despite him being well over the allowed weight. The high school football player was vacationing in Orlando, Florida when he fell 430 feet to his death in front of shocked onlookers at ICON Park on International Drive. His death was captured via cell phone footage and shared on social media, which is how his father, Yarnell learned of his death.
The teenager’s parents have continuously called for the ride to be removed. His mother, Nekia Dodd, released a statement in July calling the attraction a “monument to this preventable tragedy.” Attorney’s Ben Crump and Bob Hilliard, who are representing Sampson’s father, said the ride’s removal was “long overdue.”
“The news today is a relief to Tyre Sampson’s grieving father, who has been advocating for this since the day Tyre fell to his death,” Crump and Hilliard shared in a statement.
Yarnell says the ride’s removal brings “a little piece of justice,” but the “mission doesn’t stop.”
An investigation into his death is ongoing, but once it wraps up, the ride will be torn down. ICON Park, which leases the space to Slingshot for the FreeFall ride, says they fully support it being taken down.
Despite this latest development, the family’s lawsuit, filed in April, is moving forward. The lawsuit claims that all parties involved were negligent and failed to have signage in place to highlight the weight and height requirements. According to a ride manual, the maximum weight for the FreeFall was 287 pounds. At the time of his death, Sampson weighed 380 pounds.
