Autopsy Released For Teen Who Died In Fall From Orlando FreeFall

ORLANDO, FL — A Missouri teen who plunged to his death from an Orlando amusement park ride weighed nearly 100 pounds more than the weight limit for the attraction, according to his recently released autopsy.

Tyre Sampson, 14, weighed 383 pounds at the time of his death, the autopsy said, while the maximum passenger weight allowed on the Orlando FreeFall ride is just over 286 pounds, according to its manual.

Sampson, a 6-foot-2-inch football player and honor student from St. Louis, was on spring break at ICON Park in Orlando when he died of blunt force trauma in late March, said the autopsy, which deemed the death accidental. Sampson suffered fractures to his face, ribs, pelvis, right arm and left leg, according to the autopsy, which said he also experienced multiple hemorrhages, lacerations to his liver and spleen and perforation of the stomach.

“The loss of Tyre Sampson was a tragic accident,” Trevor Arnold, an attorney representing Orlando Slingshot, which owns the ride, said in a prepared statement. “We continue to communicate and cooperate with representatives of Tyre’s family, as well as the Department of Agriculture. We are devoted to working with our lawmakers in making lasting safety changes in the amusement park industry.”

Manual adjustments made to the ride led to Sampson’s death, a state report found in April. The changes allowed safety lights to illuminate even though Sampson’s seat harness had a gap of nearly 7 inches, rather than the usual roughly 3 inches, according to the report.

Sampson’s parents have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the park, ride operator and manufacturer, claiming it was negligence that caused their son to fall at least 100 feet from the drop-tower ride, which reaches speeds of 75 mph.

The Orlando FreeFall remains temporarily closed.