A 14-year-old boy has died after falling from a 430-foot-tall theme park walk in ICON Park, Florida. The maximum weight for the FreeFall route was 287 pounds. The Tire Sampson was 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 340 pounds. A medical examiner has been hired to find out exactly what happened.
A 14-year-old boy who died after falling from a 430-foot theme park ride in ICON Park, Florida may have been too heavy for the ride. The maximum weight for the FreeFall route was 287 pounds, according to the ride manual. The Tire Sampson was 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 340 pounds, said his father, Yarnell Sampson, according to Mail Online. “Be careful when looking at large guests to fit in the seats. Check that they fit the contour of the seat and that the bracket fits properly. If not, do not let this person drive,” the manual states. The mother of a family friend who accompanied Sampson spoke to the teen on FaceTime before going for a walk, Fox 35 Orlando reported. He said to the teenager, “Tire, go and sit down to see if you can fit, and he did and they said it fit,” he told the news agency. An incident report, seen by CNN and sent by vehicle manufacturers to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), stated that “the belt was still lowered and locked when the route stopped” and that Sampson had left his position. The teenager got out of the seat when the magnets turned to slow down the route during the descent, according to the CNN report. The father told him “he is a big guy” and his son was not allowed on other walks in the theme park due to his size, MailOnline reported. “This particular ride said, ‘We can take you, come on!’ Go up! “No one else let him go on the ride, so I wonder what happened now and then when he made them say,” Come on, take this ride! “Sampson told Fox35 last week. The story goes on Sampson said his son was an honorary student and aspiring footballer who had a bright future. “We are not going to jump to conclusions until we are given the information and all the facts are known,” Commissioner Nikki Fried, FDACS Commissioner, told a news conference. He added that a medical examiner had been hired to find out what had just happened on March 24. A woman named Shay Johnson has been widely reported in the media as Sampson’s cousin and has discussed his weight, but it was recently revealed that the family has never met the woman and does not know who she is. Read the original article in Insider
