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An Orlando theme park is set to demolish its infamous FreeFall ride, months after the devastating death of a 14-year-old who fell from the 120-foot-tall ride.
Florida Icon Park announced Thursday that the ride’s operator, the Orlando Slingshot, will remove the ride that has been inactive since Tire Sampson’s death on March 24.
Sampson, who was on a football program trip from St. Louis, died after slipping out of his seat during the ride after his safety harness was not properly fastened.
“We are devastated by Tire’s death,” Orlando Slingshot wrote in a statement. “We listened to the wishes of Tire’s family and the community and made the decision to take the Freefall down.”
Responding to the decision to end the ride, ICON Park said it “respects” Orlando Slingshots’ initiative to abort it.
Sampson’s family has been advocating for months to take the attraction off the air and started a lawsuit in June against the owner, manufacturer and lessor of the attraction.
Nekia Dodd, Sampson’s mother, celebrated the decision to end the ride on social media.
‘Justice has finally been done!! Tire “Big Tick” Sampson we did it,” Dodd wrote.
The ride operator said there is no set timeline for when the demolition will take place. Additionally, Orlando Slingshot announced that they will be developing a scholarship in Tire’s honor.
Tire Sampson was an aspiring soccer player and honors roll student. His life was cut short on March 24 when he crashed during an ICON Free Fall ride in Orlando. The ride is now aborted
A report also found that the teen’s seat sensors had to be manually adjusted to fit Sampson, and video of the event appears to show the teen’s harness is loose. Sampson was 6-foot-5 and 340 pounds. The weight limit for the ride was 287 pounds
Video from March 24th appears to show Tire falling off his chair as he started to descend
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Tire’s family, celebrated the plan to demolish the drive. Pictured: Crump outside the federal courthouse in Minneapolis, Minnesota last summer
Sampson was 6-foot-5 and 340 pounds. Other rides in the park told him it was too big to ride safely, but later got approval from the FreeFall operators — though the weight limit for the ride was 287 pounds.
Yarnell Sampson, Tyre’s father, said he gave a “happy cry” when he heard the news.
“It’s an emotional day,” Yarnell said cnn. ‘I’m crying with joy now. It’s a little slice of justice for my son. But the mission doesn’t end. This is only part of the cause. A young man lost his life.’
Attorney Ben Crump and Bob Hilliard who represent the Sampson family were also relieved by the demolition news.
“While this announcement is long overdue, today’s news is a relief to Tire Sampson’s grieving father, who has been advocating for this since the day Tire fell to his death,” Crump and Hilliard wrote in a joint statement.
“The Orlando Free Fall ride should never have taken place under bad conditions. Amusement parks, their parent companies and regulators must do their best to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening to another family.”
Sampson’s mother Nekia Dodd and father Yarnell Sampson, pictured above, celebrated victory to abort the ride their son died on
Some celebrated the decision to end the ride and called it justice, while others insisted criminal charges be brought against ICON park and management.
“Justice is being done,” one person wrote on Facebook. “I cry tears of joy for justice and sadness that such neglect has happened at all.”
“That’s probably the best decision as most people would be terrified to get on that ride after what happened,” added another person.
While another commenter said: ‘This was totally unacceptable and the amusement park should be held accountable for their actions.
“I hope the family gets all the money they deserve, rest in peace young man.”
Many were outraged when Tire’s death happened and were relieved when ‘justice’ was served on Thursday
An autopsy last week revealed that Tire weighed 393 pounds. Due to his height, he was denied the opportunity to ride all other attractions in the park
Many celebrated the victory to make the ride on which Tire died
Tire was apparently concerned that he was not safe on the ride as he went to the top with his friends. He told them to tell his parents he loved them
A photo of Tire taken before the ride took off shows him sitting with his armor unbuckled and not pulled down and fastened to his seat.
Tire and the rest of the group had been told moments earlier that there were no seat belts on the ride. The only thing that kept them from falling out of their seats were plastic, fold-down harnesses that should snap into place, between the riders’ legs.
One woman was concerned that there was nothing left to keep them in the seats as the ride went down and asked if there was a seat belt to clip them on. “There are no seat belts,” the escort replied.
In a viral video circulating after Tire’s death, a taxi driver was told to ask another if they had “checked” the seat belt.
“Yeah, the light was one,” one of the ride managers said in the video.
“We’ve both… we’ve checked. The light was on,” said a third worker.
This is the ride a 14 year old boy fell off last night. He was on the other side of the carousel when it took off. The ride operator is shown and tells the group there are ‘no seat belts’ to hold them on, just the pull-down harnesses
A memorial to Tire was placed under the ride after his death
Yarnell posted multiple photos of the memorial in ICON Park to commemorate his son who died there
According to the ride’s operating manual, attendants should also manually check the handles when loading a guest, pulling on them to make sure it’s locked.
The ride will also not ascend unless the riders are locked in their seats. The operating manual also suggests that employees be “careful” and make sure that “big guests fit in the seats.”
‘Check whether they fit within the contours of the chair and whether the bar fits properly. If not — Don’t let this person drive,” the manual states explicitly.
Tire was worried about the harness before the ride started, his father said earlier WOFL TV. The teen told his friends sitting next to him to tell his parents that he loved them.
“When the ride started, he felt uneasy. He was like “this thing moves”, you know what I mean. And he was like, ‘What’s going on?’” Yarnell said.
The grieving father said Tire panicked and shared a chilling premonition with his two closest friends, who sat next to him during the ride.
“Then he started flipping. And he explained to his friends, next to him, “I don’t know man, if I don’t make it safe can you please tell my mom and dad I love them,” Sampson said. “If he said something like that, he must have felt something.”