Tyre Sampson the 14-year-old boy who fell to his death knew that something was wrong with his safety harness as he went for a ride to the newly opened Orlando’s ICON park, according to his father. The said ride is described as taller than the Statue of Liberty along a busy street in the heart of Orlando’s tourist district.
Yarnell Sampson, the father of Tyre said that his son was worried about the safety harness while going for the ride, “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.”
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Tyre died after slipping out of his seat and falling from the 430-foot ride at the park on Thursday night. He was on vacation with his friend’s family who watched helplessly as he plummeted to the ground while the ride dropped at 75mph.
Yarnell described his son as 6 feet, 5 inches tall, and his weight was 340 pounds which made him not enjoy other rides. Yarnell said, “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!’ before adding: “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.”
Detectives investigating the death will look into whether it was intentional or accidental, said Orange County, Sheriff John Mina.
“It appears to be just a terrible tragedy,” Mina said. “We will see moving forward what that results in.”
One man who witnessed what happened told said that Tyler seemed to slip out of his seat when the ride braked as it approached the bottom.
“Bam went straight through his chair and dropped,” the man said on the 911 call. “It was the biggest smack I ever heard in my life. I seen him hit the ground.”
The devastated father remembers his son as he remarked, “Fourteen-year-old young man. He was an honor roll student. The young man had a bright future.” He also mentioned Tyre wanted to play in the NFL in the future. “Last season, they had a good football season. Went to nationals. Could have been a recruiting trip – wasn’t sure? It was something in that nature. He was a team player. He was the type of young man that’d take the shirt off his back and give it to you.”
The sales director of the Slingshot Group who owns the rise John Stine said in a statement, “We are absolutely saddened and devastated by what happened, and our hearts go out to this young man’s family. We are cooperating with all other investigations at this time to get to the bottom of what happened.”
Sources: Scallywag & Vagabond, ABC News, Daily Mail, Fox Orlando