Fresh details about the Orlando Free Fall ride tragedy were recently divulged in court. Whistleblowing maintenance technician Austin Campbell-Alexander testified in his retaliation case that “he raised safety issues with the operators” long before 14-year-old Tyre Sampson fatally fell. His “concerns were never addressed.”
Ride sensors ‘modified’
The operators of Orlando’s Icon Park Free Fall ride were practically asking for a horrible tragedy. The case filed by Sampson’s family resulted in “a $310 million verdict against the attraction’s Austrian builder last year.”
Campbell-Alexander isn’t looking to get rich with his case. He’s only asking for $50,000 in damages for the way he was illegally fired.
On Wednesday, March 19, the former maintenance tech testified that the ride “had sensors which were modified to accommodate people whose height or weight were outside safety limits.”
The public already knew that the seat wasn’t properly adjusted. What we didn’t know was that “overheated cylinders prevented seats from securing properly.”
Another factor that nobody was aware of, “the drop ride’s metal structure had cracks in its joints.”
Besides that, Campbell-Alexander told the court, “he and his colleagues weren’t given any training on ride maintenance or patron safety.” Just herd em in and collect the cash.
Nobody did a thing
According to attorney Greg Schmitz, his client “brought these concerns to his manager and the owner of the ride, and basically they didn’t do what they should have done.”
If they used basic common sense, Sampson would be alive today. Safety features are engineered in for a reason.
On March 24, 2022, the attendant on duty stuffed 6 foot, 2 inch tall, 380 pound high school football star Tyre Sampson into a seat on the ride.
They had one already jimmied to accept a passenger well outside the ride’s rated limits. The unfortunate young man had been “visiting Orlando on spring break from the St. Louis area.”
A total of 30 riders were strapped in and “secured with a shoulder harness before the ride lifted them up the tower and then dropped them 430 feet.” Because of the improper adjustments and defeated safety sensors, “the harness didn’t lock properly and he was ejected from his seat when the ride braked.”
When Campbell-Alexander was told to backdate and fill in “blank maintenance logs showing that tasks had been performed in the weeks before the accident,” he told the ride operators to shove it. They fired him. He’s asking for “back pay, compensatory damages and punitive damages.“
