this is channel 9 eyewitness news at six
coverage you can count on
right now at six an amusement ride gone
wrong nothing in the world
to replace that young man the painful
cries from the father of the 14 year old
boy who fell to his death on an orlando
ride last night and the lingering
questions about how it happened
the orlando freefall ride at icon park
remains closed as investigators try to
figure out how this all happened good
evening i'm vanessa eckles and i'm
martha sagalski this is just a horrific
story that ride officially opened just a
few months ago this is video of the
scene from today you can see those
inspectors assessing the seat which is
believed to be the seat that that 14
year old boy was in
also tonight we do have live team
coverage on this tragedy channel 9
investigative reporter christopher heath
is digging into how often this ride gets
inspected and looking at those
inspection reports but we begin tonight
with channel 9 shannon butler who's been
working all day to find out just how
this happened shannon the orange county
sheriff says this appears to be just a
tragic accident
well he doesn't witnesses that were here
last night told me they watched the ride
go up and it didn't seem like anything
was wrong they said it went up to the
top it came back down came to that stop
like it always does that's when they say
that the 14 year old came underneath one
of those blue harnesses and fell to the
ground dispatchers tried to get people
to give him cpr but those callers to 911
said it was too late
gary winthrop was at icon park last
night watching the free fall ride the
ride goes up and it kind of it comes it
goes up we're kind of watching it next
thing you know it starts coming down
like oh and everybody's screaming you
know normal you know ride type of thing
he never thought he would see what
happened next it comes down you know i
guess it halted on the brakes you know
because you know it comes kind of closer
and then he slides right out
fourteen-year-old tyree sampson was on
the ride around 11 o'clock last night
when he fell to his death people called
9-1-1 trying to help him the thing went
down to drop and like when they got
closer to the bottom when it hit the
brakes the guy fell right out of the
seat and
bam
straight through the
chair the sheriff's office said that he
was here from missouri with another
family on vacation today investigators
were out measuring the seat he was
riding in as they work to try to figure
out what went wrong today the sheriff's
office says early findings show that
this was just a tragic accident but it
is still unclear how and why sampson was
thrown from the ride the sheriff said
that workers that were interviewed did
not see anything wrong before the ride
went up and you can hear the workers
after the fall
saying that those checks were done
right now you can see this ride is shut
down as investigators continue to try to
figure out what went wrong here it is
unclear when this ride will reopen as
for the family they say he was here on
spring break he is a fierce football
player they said and a good student they
are devastated by what's happened here
we are live in orlando shannon butler
channel 9 eyewitness news
and new this hour we are hearing from
that heartbroken father of the 14 year
old killed he says when he heard what
happened it knocked the wind out of him
sorry he's not going to take it back
ain't no monies no
nothing in the world
to replace the young man
and uh
it's just i'm just saying it said a
young man bright future been taken away
from him
and
over over a ride or a news report
that father says the pain he's feeling
is never going to go away
the company behind the orlando free fall
at icon park says it's the tallest
freestanding drop tower in the world at
430 feet tall it can hold 30 riders at
once when they get to the top of the
tower riders are tilted forward 30
degrees toward the ground
then they free fall nearly 400 feet
reaching speeds of 75 miles per hour now
take a look at this this is video from
the day the ride opened this was in late
december you can see employees there
were going around to each rider and
tugging on the harness to make sure the
riders were locked in before they were
hoisted into the air rides like this are
subjected to inspections by the state
department of agriculture they're
required to have a certificate of
insurance and an annual affidavit of
compliance and testing performed by a
professional engineer or qualified
inspector and that ride would have had
been inspected before it opened in
december but since it's only been open
for a few months it wasn't yet due for
any re-inspections channel 9
investigative reporter christopher heath
obtained the u.s and international
patents for the ride and continues our
team coverage with more details about
the attraction
the thing we are looking for is
information about the seats in the
united states there are three of these
large 400 foot drop towers two built by
a company out of liechtenstein
both of these have a belt that connects
the shoulder restraint to the seat but
the one in orlando was built by an
austrian company and it has no such belt
the ride that claimed a teen's life in
orlando had only been in operation for a
few months
the state was required to inspect it
before opening today crews were
inspecting the ride again testing the
seats you can see here men walking from
chair to chair checking the shoulder
restraints
state law requires daily inspections
which spokesman john stein says the
company was doing we
work with the florida department of
agriculture
they do their inspections we do a daily
inspection on our rides before we open
in documents released to eyewitness news
from the florida department of
agriculture you can see here the ride
was inspected on monday december the
20th that's less than four months ago it
passed with state inspection specialist
mark gonzalez signing off on the ride as
for the ride itself the manufacturer is
a company called funtime
the austrian company has a series of u.s
and international patents for the ride
most that we found deal with the tower
with just one mention of seats or
harnesses but no specifics as for how
the harness failed or if it was never
secured properly in the first place that
will be determined by a series of
inspections across several levels of the
government it is ongoing and we we're
working with orange county sheriff's
office as well as
other agencies that have yet to be
engaged but will be engaged christopher
heath channel 9 eyewitness news
this young man's tragic death has drawn
attention from all over and the rides
being closed at icon park also that has
people talking as well channel 9's nick
papintonis continues our live team
coverage at icon park and nick people
weren't necessarily there to see it but
everyone you've talked with has been
affected in some way
there's been a steady stream of people
here at icon park looking up toward the
sky trying to picture their friends or
family members or children even
riding this ride in that teenager's
place there's even been a memorial that
started here with people laying flowers
down to the base of the ride honoring
the teen who died this is about the time
of the day where people start heading
out to eat and have fun in this district
some of the tourists told me not
everyone knows just what happened yet
we've been getting a lot of questions
just standing here the news spread
pretty quickly last night people say
there's been an uneasiness up and down
the road everyone silently saying to
themselves this could have been me
i can't imagine that kind of thing
happening right in front of me you know
it's like a regular night
a regular spring break night i got a kid
and she's 11. she loves stuff like this
but
i don't think she's going to be getting
on these no more
this is the second drop ride death in
the united states since this fall a
six-year-old died out in colorado back
in september after she wasn't properly
restrained inside the ride however
amusement park rides have been
increasingly rare since the turn of the
century falling quite a bit in amount
compared to how many people ride these
rides we're going to be taking a look at
that in depth tonight on wftv tonight at
11. live in orange county nick
papintonis channel 9 eyewitness news
we're going to continue digging into
what happened last night at icon park
we'll have any new developments on air
and online at wftv.com