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A 14-year-old boy died after falling from a 430-foot-tall amusement park ride at Florida’s ICON Park.
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The weight limit for the FreeFall ride was 287 pounds. Tire Sampson was 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 340 pounds.
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A forensic investigator has been hired to understand what just happened.
A 14-year-old boy who died after falling from a 430-foot-high amusement park ride at Florida’s ICON Park may have been overweight for the ride.
The weight limit for the FreeFall ride was 287 pounds, according to the ride manual. Tire Sampson was six feet tall and weighed 340 pounds, his father, Yarnell Sampson, said, according to the Mail Online.
“Be careful when checking whether large guests will fit in the seats. Check that they fit within the contours of the seat and that the bar fits properly. If not, do not let this person drive”, the manual reads .
The mother of a family friend who accompanied Sampson spoke to the teen on FaceTime before getting on the ride, Fox 35 Orlando reported.
She told the teen: “Tyre, sit down and see if you can pass, and that’s what he did, and they said he could pass,” she told the news channel.
An incident report, seen by CNN and sent by the ride manufacturers to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), stated that the “harness was still in a downward and locked position when the ride stopped” and that Sampson moved out of his seat. .
The teen got out of the seat when the magnets kicked in to slow the ride during the descent, the CNN report says.
His father said “he’s a big guy” and his son wasn’t allowed to ride on other rides at the theme park because of his size, the MailOnline reported.
“This one particular ride said, ‘We can take you, come on! Get on!’ No one else allowed him to ride, so I wonder what happened between now and then that made them say, ‘Come on, take this ride!’ Sampson told Fox35 last week..
Sampson said his son was a honors student and an ambitious footballer who had a bright future.
“We are not going to jump to any conclusions until the information has been provided to us and all the facts are known,” FDACS Commissioner Nikki Fried said at a news conference.
She added that a forensic investigator was hired to understand what just happened on March 24.
A woman named Shay Johnson has been widely quoted in the media as Sampson’s cousin and has discussed his weight, but it has recently been revealed that the family has never met the woman and does not know who he is.
Read the original article on Insider
