Technician says Florida thrill ride operator ignored his safety concerns before teen's fatal fall
A maintenance technician alleged on Wednesday that he raised safety issues with the operators of a central Florida amusement ride before a 14-year-old boy fell to his death, but his concerns were never addressed.
Austin Campbell-Alexander said in the state whistleblower lawsuit that the Orlando Free Fall ride at Icon Park had sensors which were modified to accommodate people whose height or weight were outside safety limits. He also alleged that overheated cylinders prevented seats from securing properly and that the drop ride's metal structure had cracks in its joints. Campbell-Alexander also said he and his colleagues weren't given any training on ride maintenance or patron safety.
'He brought these concerns to his manager and the owner of the ride, and basically they didn't do what they should have done,' Greg Schmitz, one of his attorneys, said in a phone interview.
A spokeswoman for the ride operators didn't immediately respond to an emailed inquiry.
Tyre Sampson fell 70 feet (21 meters) to his death on March 24, 2022. A football standout who stood 6 foot, 2 inches tall (1.9 meters) and weighed 380 pounds (172 kilograms), he was visiting Orlando on spring break from the St. Louis area.
Sampson went with friends to the amusement park on International Drive in the heart of the region's tourism district, and they rode the Orlando Free Fall, which placed 30 riders in seats attached to a tower. Each passenger was secured with a shoulder harness before the ride lifted them up the tower and then dropped them 430 feet (131 meters).
Because of Sampson's size, the harness didn't lock properly and he was ejected from his seat when the ride braked, authorities said.
Campbell-Alexander wasn't present during the accident, but he has suffered depression and anxiety since then, Schmitz said.
He said that after Sampson's death, he was asked to backfill blank maintenance logs showing that tasks had been performed in the weeks before the accident. Campbell-Alexander refused and was put on paid administrative leave for a year and not permitted to return to the property, the lawsuit said.
After Sampson's family reached a settlement with the ride's operators, Campbell-Alexander was fired. His attorneys said it was retaliation for the safety concerns he had flagged. Sampson's family also won a $310 million verdict against the attraction's Austrian builder last year.
The lawsuit filed in state court in Orlando said Campbell-Alexander is seeking more than $50,000. Schmitz said it should include back pay, compensatory damages and punitive damages.
'It was just very traumatic from his perspective, working there,' Schmitz said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Former pupil kills nine, then himself in shooting at Austrian school
STORY: A former pupil killed nine people and then himself at a secondary school in the southern Austrian city of Graz on Tuesday. It is the worst school shooting in the country's modern history. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said six of the victims were female and three were male, and that 12 people were also injured. He gave no further details to identify the victims but Austrian media said most were pupils. The motive for the attack is not yet known. But police said they assumed the 21-year-old Austrian shooter, who was found dead in a bathroom, was operating alone when he entered the school at 10am with two guns and opened fire. In Graz, Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker described it as a "dark day" in the history of the country and announced three days of national mourning. 'Today is a dark day in the history of our country. The killing spree at a school here in Graz, the Borg, Dreischuetzengasse, is a national tragedy that shakes us to the core. Nine people were suddenly torn from their lives by this inconceivable act. There are no words to express the pain, the bewilderment and the grief felt by the whole of Austria.' Austria has one of the most heavily armed civilian populations in Europe, with an estimated 30 firearms per 100 people, according to the Small Arms Survey, an independent research project.
The Hill
23 minutes ago
- The Hill
Here's what we know about a school shooting in Austria
GRAZ, Austria (AP) — A shooter opened fire inside a school in Austria's second-biggest city Tuesday, fatally wounding 10 people, authorities said. It appeared to be the deadliest attack in Austria's postwar history. Many others were wounded in the attack, and the gunman later died by suicide in a bathroom in the school in Graz, officials said. Details about the suspect's motive, as well as information about the victims, were not immediately available. Here's what we know: The shooter opened fire at a school in Graz, fatally wounding 10 people before taking his own life, authorities said. Authorities earlier said another 12 people were wounded. Special forces were among those sent to the BORG Dreierschützengasse high school, about a kilometer (over half a mile) from Graz's historic center, after a call at 10 a.m. At 11:30 a.m., police wrote on social media that the school had been evacuated and everyone had been taken to a safe meeting point. Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said there would be three days of national mourning, with the Austrian flag lowered to half-staff and a national minute of mourning at 10 a.m. Wednesday. 'A school is more than just a place of learning,' Stocker said. 'It is a space of trust, of security, of the future. The fact that this safe space was shattered by such an act of violence leaves us speechless.' Graz, Austria's second-biggest city, is located in the southeast and has about 300,000 inhabitants. The gunman was a former student at the school who didn't finish his studies, Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said. His name has not been made public in line with Austrian privacy rules. Authorities say he was a 21-year-old Austrian man who had two weapons, which he appeared to have owned legally. Police said they didn't immediately have information on the man's motive, but said he died by suicide in a bathroom after the attack. Other attacks in the country include when four people were killed in Vienna in 2020 and the suspect, a sympathizer of the Islamic State group, also died in a shooting that stunned the Austrian capital. More than 20 other people, including a police officer, were wounded. In 2019, a 25-year-old man turned himself in to Austrian police after he killed his ex-girlfriend, her family and her new boyfriend in the Alpine resort town of Kitzbuehel. And almost exactly 10 years ago, on June 20, 2015, a man killed three people and injured more than 30 when he drove through a crowd in downtown Graz with an SUV. Austria has some of the more liberal gun laws in the European Union. Traditionally, many in the Alpine country go hunting, and it's more common to carry a weapon for that and less for self-defense. Some weapons, such as rifles and shotguns that must be reloaded manually after each shot, can be purchased in Austria from the age of 18 without a permit. Gun dealers only need to check if there's no weapons ban on the buyer, and the weapon is then added to the central weapons register. Other weapons, such as repeating shotguns or semi-automatic firearms, are more difficult to acquire — buyers need a gun ownership card and a firearms pass.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Ten killed in Austria school shooting
Ten people have been killed in a school shooting in the Austrian city of Graz, in what is the deadliest gun attack in the country's recent history. Police said the 21-year-old gunman, a former student, took his own life in a school bathroom shortly after. The incident took place at Dreierschützengasse secondary school in the north-west of the city. Six females and three males were killed in the attack, according to Interior Minister Gerhard Karner. A further 12 people were injured, some seriously, according to police. Later on Tuesday, local media reported an injured female had died in hospital, bringing the number of victims killed to 10. The gunman, who has not yet been named, was a former Dreierschützengasse student who didn't graduate from the school, Karner told a news conference on Tuesday afternoon. There has been a lot of speculation about the case, Karner noted, adding it is now the job of the criminal office to investigate. In the same conference, police said the gunman's motive was still under investigation. Officers also confirmed the gunman was not known to police before the attack. Current information suggests the shooter legally owned the two guns used in the attack and had a firearms licence, police added. Local media outlets have reported the suspect used a pistol and a shotgun to carry out the shooting. He was an Austrian man from the wider Graz region who acted alone, police said. Three days of mourning have been declared in Austria, and a nationwide minute's silence will be held on Wednesday at 10:00am local time in memory of the victims. Flags on the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, where the President Alexander Van der Bellen has his office, will fly at half mast. The school where the attack took place will remain closed until further notice, according to Austria's Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr. The Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said Tuesday was a "dark day in [the] history of our country" and declared the shooting a "national tragedy". "A school is more than just a place to learn - it is a space for trust, for feeling comfortable and for having a future," he told the conference, adding this safe place had been "violated". "In these difficult hours, being human is our strongest point," he said. Austria's APA news agency has reported that seven of those killed were pupils. The attack "strikes our country right at its heart", Stocker said in the immediate aftermath. "These were young people who had their whole lives ahead of them." Police said they began an operation at 10:00 local time (09:00 BST) after gunshots were heard from inside the school. A specialist Cobra tactical unit - which handles attacks and hostage situations - was deployed to the school, police said. Authorities evacuated all pupils and teachers from the building. Police confirmed the school had been secured and there was no further danger posed to members of the public. "Locally, we have seen people crying on the streets, talking to friends that have been at the school when the shooting happened, who have maybe lost a friend," said Fanny Gasser, a journalist for the Austrian daily newspaper Kronen Zeitung. She told BBC News "everybody knows somebody" at the school because Graz - despite being the second-largest city in Austria - is "not that big". She said the school was likely unprepared for the possibility of an attack. "We are not living in America, we are living in Austria, which seems like a very safe space." Local mayor Elke Kahr called the incident a "terrible tragedy". European Commission Vice-President Kaja Kallas said she was "deeply shocked" by the news. "Every child should feel safe at school and be able to learn free from fear and violence," she posted on X. The incident is the deadliest mass shooting in the country's recent history. In 2020, jihadist gunman Kujtim Fejzulai shot four people dead and wounded 23 others on a rampage through Vienna's busy nightlife district. Meanwhile, in 2016, a gunman opened fire at a concert in the town of Nenzing, killing two people before shooting himself dead. Eleven other people were injured in the attack.
