An autopsy of Tyre Sampson, the 14-year-old boy, revealed that the teen was nearly 100 pounds over the ride’s weight limit.
Sampson died from blunt force trauma when he fell from the FreeFall ride at ICON Park in March, according to his autopsy report.
The autopsy revealed that Sampson, who played football in St Louis, Missouri where he was from, weighed 383 pounds — nearly 100 pounds over the ride’s weight limit of 287 pounds. He had been in Orlando with a friend’s family for vacation when he fell to his death.
‘The body is that of well-developed, obese, 74 inch, 383 pound, black male, appearing older than the reported age of 14 years,’ the medical examiner’s reports said, according to .
The teen suffered internal and external injuries to his head, neck and torso when he slipped out of a safety harness before nosediving onto the concrete below the ride.
The Orange County Medical Examiner ruled his manner of death was an accident.
An initial report by outside engineers concluded that sensors on the ride had been adjusted manually to double the size of the opening for restraints on two seats, which resulted in the teen not being properly secured in his seat.
Sampson’s parents have filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Orange County, suing the ride’s owner, manufacturer and the landlord, alleging they knew the ride was not safe and did not have proper signage warning people about weight and height requirements.
In the lawsuit, his parents claim no one warned their son about the risks of someone his size going on the ride and that they did not provide him with an appropriate restraint system.
Video taken by a bystander of the teen’s horrific death showed the gap in his seat was between six and seven inches. Investigators have said Sampson ‘slipped through the gap between the seat and the harness and fell 100 feet to his death.’
An attorney for the ride’s owner has said the company is cooperating with state investigators.
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