Nekia Dodd was living a parent’s worst nightmare when she learned that her 14-year-old son had fallen to his death from a 430-foot drop tower ride last month, our sister station WKMG reports.
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A spring break vacation brought to a tragic end, 14-year-old Tyre Sampson lost his life on March 24 after falling from a drop tower attraction at ICON Park in Orlando.
When Dodd received the call that her son had passed away, she was devastated.
“To get a call over the phone and not to be there as a mother to comfort ... that’s very disturbing. It’s heart-wrenching,” Dodd said during a news conference on Tuesday. “It’s heart-wrenching. I couldn’t do anything for my son but have the phone. I couldn’t touch him. I couldn’t hold him. I couldn’t hug him. I couldn’t do anything.”
On Tuesday, his mother spoke to the public for the first time at a news conference in St. Louis. She was joined by her attorney, Michael Haggard. During the conference, she expressed that she felt more could’ve been done to prevent her son’s death.
This public appearance comes after Dodd and her attorney filed a wrongful death lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, the family accused the park, manufacturer and ride operator of negligence, claiming that the ride was “unreasonably dangerous” and that Tyree, who was 6 feet and 2 inches and 380 pounds, should have been warned about the “foreseeable risks” given his size.
During the news conference, his mother said the operator should have posted warnings about proper height and weight restrictions.
The lawsuit also alleges that there wasn’t an appropriate restraint system on the ride. Free-fall rides typically have a shoulder harness and a seat belt; however, the Orlando FreeFall ride only had an over-the-shoulder harness.
According to the lawsuit, adding seat belts to the ride’s 30 seats would have cost $660.
“Somebody manipulated the seats, somebody changed the size of this harness and what it can fit. So the question is who did that, when did they do that and who directed it?” Haggard questioned.
“It’s disgusting. So it’s like, you didn’t want to miss a dollar, but you stripped me of my son,” Dodd said. “So yeah, it’s disgusting.”
The attorney for Orlando Slingshot, the company that operates the ride, released the following statement:
“Orlando Slingshot continues to fully cooperate with the State during its investigation, and we will continue to do so until it has officially concluded. We reiterate that all protocols, procedures and safety measures provided by the manufacturer of the ride were followed. We look forward to working with the Florida legislature to implement change in the industry and we are also supportive of the concepts outlined by State Representative Geraldine Thompson to make changes to state law through the ‘Tyre Sampson Bill’ to prevent a tragic accident like this from ever happening again.”
The boy’s mother said she saw her son for the last time when he was headed out the door for Florida.
“As he’s backing out my door, he turns around and says, ‘I’ll see you Saturday or Sunday.’ That was my last time speaking to my son. And that Sunday, I was waiting for my son to come home. Because that’s what he told me ... So to get a call to say he’s not coming back. I’m still like in shock. This is a nightmare and it’s still a nightmare,” she said.
