Ex-technician says ride operator ignored safety issues before teen's deadly fall

USA Today

20-03-2025

Ex-technician says ride operator ignored safety issues before teen's deadly fall
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Trial begins in lawsuit over Tyre Sampson death
Jury selection was set to begin in a lawsuit against the manufacturers of the FreeFall ride at ICON Park, where a 14-year-old fell to his death in 2022.
Fox - 35 Orlando
A former maintenance technician who worked on an Orlando amusement park ride before 14-year-old Tyre Sampson died in a shocking fall from it in 2022 claims he alerted supervisors of safety issues that were ignored before the incident.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday seeking over $50,000, Austin Campbell-Alexander said he alerted his supervisor that a ride operator was using replacement sensors on some of the Free Fall ride's seats to allow larger passengers to ride than the seats were designed to accommodate, overriding the ride's safety equipment.
"Such an override was knowingly dangerous to the public as the Freefall ride's manufacturer set weight and height limits for riders," the lawsuit, which was viewed by USA TODAY asserted.
This was the safety issue that investigators later determined led to Sampson's death at Orlando's ICON Park on March 24, 2022. Sampson's family was awarded $310 million last year in a suit against the ride's manufacturer, Funtime-Handels.
"We will work to hold Orlando Eagle Drop Slingshot accountable and send a message to all ride owners and operators that you cannot sweep safety concerns under the rug or punish workers who bring them to light," Campbell-Alexander's attorneys John Morgan and Greg Schmitz of the Morgan & Morgan Law Firm said in a statement.
The lawyers representing the ride's operators, Eagle Drop Slingshot and other companies, said Campbell-Alexander's claims "are in direct conflict with statements he provided following the accident, which will no doubt be demonstrated in Court."
"Upon discovering that Mr. Campbell-Alexander adjusted the sensors that resulted in the accident, he was suspended and relieved of any further involvement or access to any rides. Upon learning of Mr. Campbell-Alexander's and other employees' conduct, we proactively notified investigating authorities," Trevor Arnold and Brian Bieber of the Pennsylvania-based GrayRobinson firm said in a statement to USA TODAY.
Campbell-Alexander's attorneys denied that he adjusted the sensors on his own and said he didn't have the authority or the training to do so. The decisions about the sensors and operation of the ride were solely with the defendants, they said.
What happened to Tyre Sampson
The Free Fall ride was designed to carry 30 riders at a time and rise to the top, tilt forward and then free fall nearly 400 feet at speeds reaching over 75 mph. Sampson slipped out the bottom of the seat on the descent while the ride braked, witnesses said at the time.
Video of the incident suggested he was propelled from his seat at high speeds. Attorneys for his family said there was no secondary seatbelt other than the over-the-shoulder harness.
The ride was supposed to hold passengers up to 287 pounds, according to its manual. Sampson was about 6-foot-2 and about 380 pounds, a lawsuit filed by his family said.
"The cause of the subject accident was that Tyre Sampson was not properly secured in the seat primarily due to mis-adjustment of the harness proximity sensor," said a 2022 report from the forensic engineering firm hired by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to investigate the cause of the accident. "The mis-adjustment of the sensor allowed both safety lights to illuminate, improperly satisfying the ride's electronic safety mechanisms allowing the ride to commence even though the ride was unsafe."
Ex-employee claims safety issues were reported
In Campbell-Alexander's suit, the former technician claimed an operations manager manually bypassed the normal safety features of some of the rides' seats. The lawsuit said he reported this issue to his supervisor. Campbell-Alexander said he learned of the issues around mid-January, but the lawsuit doesn't say when he reported them. He also raised concerns about a lack of training given to technicians, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also claims that about two weeks before Sampson's death, Campbell-Alexander and another employee discovered a cylinder that locks and holds riders into their seats was overheating when the ride was operating.
The lawsuit says employees tried to fix the ride, but realized a technician would need to come reprogram the ride from Austria, where the manufacturer is based.
"Nonetheless, despite knowing a 're-program' was necessary, Defendants went ahead and continued operating the FreeFall ride, bypassed the safety issue, and disregarded the safety risks this would pose to patrons," the lawsuit said.
Other safety issues discovered also went unaddressed and the ride continued to operate, the lawsuit claimed.
Campbell-Alexander said after Sampson's death, he was asked by his supervisors to "backfill blank maintenance logs and sign off on certain maintenance tasks as having been performed by him and one of Plaintiff's co-workers."
He refused, and was later placed on paid leave for nearly a year before he was fired, the lawsuit said. Campbell-Alexander alleges in the lawsuit that his firing was retaliatory.
The Free Fall ride has since been taken down.
Contributing: N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY