Disaster Teenage boy, 14, dies after plunging from 400ft drop tower ride at Orlando's ICON Park [Video] - Teen was taken to hospital but died from his injuries, Orange County police said.

Archived video of the fall referenced in the article (but not included), fetched from YouTube (likely to be deleted soon). NSFL. Don't watch if you don't want to see someone splatter at the 3:40 timestamp:



A teenager has died after falling from a drop ride at a theme park in Orlando, Florida

The 14-year-old fell from the plunging ride - the world's tallest free-standing drop tower - at ICON park, just after 11pm on Thursday.

The teen, who has not yet been identified, was taken to hospital but succumbed to his injuries, Orange County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.

Terrifying footage captured the horrific accident and the screams of witnesses as the boy fell from the ride, which rotates around a tower as it rises in the air before plunging to the ground at 75 miles per hour.

The ride, the Orlando Free Fall, opened in December 2021, stands at 430ft tall and can accommodate up to 30 people.

The vehicle rotates around a central tower as it rises. After it reaches the top, riders tilt forward and face the ground briefly before free-falling at approximately 75 miles per hour.

It was not immediately clear how the teenager became free from the ride's seat belt or how many people were on the tower at the time.

ICON Park on International Drive has not yet commented on the tragedy. Police have opened an investigation into the incident.

A teenager has died after falling from a drop ride at ICON theme park on International Drive in Orlando, Florida just after 11pm on Thursday

The teen, who has not yet been identified, was taken to hospital but succumbed to his injuries, Orange County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.

It comes less than two years after a park employee died after falling 200 feet from the Orlando StarFlyer attraction.

The 21-year-old employee was performing a safety check about halfway up the 450-foot-tall ride when he plummeted to his death just before 8am on September 14, the Orange County Sheriff's Office stated.

The worker struck a platform below the ride at ICON Park on International Drive in Orlando and went into cardiac arrest, according to first responders who were called to the scene.

The man was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead from his injuries.

The swing ride opened to the public in 2018. According to the description on the attraction's official site, StarFlyer has no age limit and no weight limit, and the minimum height required to go on the ride is just 44 inches.

The ride is made up of 24 double seats that travel up and down and around the giant tower for 3-4 minutes.

At the time of the fall, the worker was about halfway up the 450-foot-high ride, billed at the world's tallest swing ride

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10651331/Teen-dies-fall-Florida-amusement-park-ride.html
https://archive.ph/nLadc
 
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Friend of a friend worked for Six Flags in Vallejo when someone ate it. To hear the tale, everyone in the park had to piss in a cup and they all got interrogated like a terry at Gitmo.

There's "IDGAF if your burger has an extra pickle slice" and then there's "IDGAF if you literally die at my feet due to my own halfassery."

You gotta be pretty fuckin' based to not give a fuck about kids dying, no matter what you're paid.

Also, that kid has better tiddies than most troons on here. At least the nips look like they're on speaking terms.
Yeah those nips are top notch and they aint even on a woman....or person anymore...their on the ground.
 
I have no idea how else you would describe what happened. He literally fell 400 feet. Just because the ride went down with him part of the way that doesn't mean he didn't fall 400 feet. He fell 400 feet continuously. I'm honestly not sure how to describe this else if you are so stupid that you can't understand this basic fact of mechanics.

Also, the camera person is one cold motherfucker. Normally when crazy shit happens people's hands start shaking. Not this guy. Camera stayed steady as hell.
Disbelief at circumstance in an insane situation is powerfully sobering. Deer in the headlights and all that.

Gravity straight Gallagher'd that kid, Jesus Christ...
 
Holy shit this is absolutely horrifying. It's one of the reasons i never liked those carnival rides, especially after seeing documentary after documentary of those carny trash faggots never checking safety precautions and just general misconduct when it comes to shit like this and safety.
All you have to consider is that even extremely high-budget, professionally-run, reputable theme parks like Disney World and Alton Towers occasionally have horrific accidents. If it can happen there, then what fucking trust should anyone put in some dodgy pop-up carnival run by gypsies?
 
All you have to consider is that even extremely high-budget, professionally-run, reputable theme parks like Disney World and Alton Towers occasionally have horrific accidents. If it can happen there, then what fucking trust should anyone put in some dodgy pop-up carnival run by gypsies?
Thats why people there drink, to ignore that as easily as possible
'
 
I'd imagine it has brakes like an elevator:

Per the internets:

"Elevators also have electromagnetic brakes that engage when the car comes to a stop. The electromagnets actually keep the brakes in the open position, instead of closing them. With this design, the brakes will automatically clamp shut if the elevator loses power."
Drop towers typically have multiple brake systems, e.g. an eddy current brake to bring the carriage to a slow speed and mechanical (electromagnetic or hydraulic) brakes to bring it to a complete stop and finally hydraulic pistons to carefully lower the carriage to ground level.

Eddy current brakes are completely solid-state and do not even touch the carriage, so they cannot fail. If the mechanical brakes fail, the hydraulic pistons can take over and passengers get a somewhat rough landing. Likewise if the hydraulic pistons fail. Uncomfortable, but no splat. It’ll all work and bring you down safely if the power is cut or other mechanical snafus take place.

If the drop tower shuts down mid-ride, your main problem is that you’re stuck ascending and the ride isn’t capable of actually dropping you. You’ll have to wait for a mobile crane to pluck you out.
 
This is becoming yet another instance of something horrific being captured on video, then everyone demands that people who share the video should be punished. Twitter is currently up in arms about people posting the video anywhere.

I have never understood this perspective. If something is truly horrific and is the result of problems that need to be fixed, everyone should view it. Nobody is forcing the family to watch the video. People need to see what can happen.

All of that said, anybody who goes on a theme park ride in 2022 is basically asking to fucking die. We can't even repair our roads and bridges, what the hell makes you think that a 200ft tower designed to give you the sensation of falling to your death would be safe?
 
I see people who get on these kinds of rides the same as I see base jumpers. If your dopamine pathways are so fucked that you need to almost die to feel alive, cool, but don't get mad when the wind blows just right and reduces you to ludicrous gibs. And yes, I know it's "rare", but I think putting yourself in a non-zero risk of death for literally no benefit whatsoever is just a retarded thing to do.
You're in a nonzero risk of death by just standing there and you sure as fuck increased it by a lot when you went on a drive for groceries or a walk around the park. Get over yourself.
 
All of that said, anybody who goes on a theme park ride in 2022 is basically asking to fucking die. We can't even repair our roads and bridges, what the hell makes you think that a 200ft tower designed to give you the sensation of falling to your death would be safe?
You have a better chance of dying in a car crash on the way to the theme park than getting killed by an amusement park ride operated by the most braindead of carnies.
 
You're in a nonzero risk of death by just standing there and you sure as fuck increased it by a lot when you went on a drive for groceries or a walk around the park. Get over yourself.
>going to get food has the same benefit as riding a janky thrill ride maintained by drunk carnies

How does one even respond to a comment this detached from reality?
 
saw this vid last night posted in "Post videos of people dying" thread
but the video had no info. Did some research and I was surprised this happen last night.
my deepest sympathies go to the family, the young teen had his whole ahead of him and ended just like that

But what I would like to know is the aftermath.
The aftermath is what I always find interesting but is rarely reported.
I would like to know who will be at fault and if they or them will charged with murder
Will the ride be closed?
And of course, there will be a lawsuit and payout, parks have insurance injuries or deaths

But I'm more interested what is going to happen to crew or all the employees involved with this ride
 
God, do you hear that wet splat? And the blood seeping out. He split open like an overly ripe grape. I ain't ever get on one of these fucking things and I never plan to.
Thats what I was thinking. I've heard that particular sound once before. If anybody remembers that incident back in the 90s at playland in vancouver when a guy got killed after going splat when the slingshot ride fucked up and a guy went flying into the pavement, face first with that thing they make you sit in landing on top of him. I had the unfortunate experience of being a few feet away when it happened, waiting in line for the rollercoaster (its right next to the roller coaster and some rock climbing wall) and saw and heard the whole thing. Same fucking sound

Speaking of said roller coaster, years earlier there was an incident where some idiot tried to do a headstand while going over the first drop. Naturally he fell - a few feet down onto the track and ended up having to deliberately roll off the track and let himself fall to avoid getting run over by the roller coaster when it got to him. Apparently he survived but broke most of his bones and spent a ton of time in the hospital. So yeah, don't do stupid shit like that either

On that note, its the roller coaster from this episode of first wave
 
I guess I'm just jaded at this point, but I don't understand why a teen who looks like he was pushing 300 pounds making a crater on an amusement park ride is a big shock to people.

Most rides have a weight/height limit for a reason, and I can see they didn't bother to even tell our future Rare-Earth miner that his safety harness wasn't fully ratcheted down. I imagine that when he was lifted up it probably sheared some of the gears that weren't meant to bear the full brunt of his weight and lifted a bit more. That or the adrenaline got him sweating and we had a greased pig type situation.
 
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Theme Park rider operators are some of the dumbest fucking people ever, especially if they're ones not for big name brands like Disney, or Universal.

Slightly PL, but something like this almost happened to me and my sister at a shitty carnival when we were kids. It wasn't for a ride as nearly as dramatic as this, but the possible results would've been nearly as bad. It was some ride that lifted you high into the air with these small carriers, and then spun you really, really fast in a tilted circle.

To cut a long story short, the dipshit operating the ride didn't properly check, or lock the gate for our carrier and it swung open the second, or third loop around. We would've both been launched out of the thing and have fallen over 30ft if we hadn't grabbed the gate door, slammed it shut, and held it closed for dear life for the rest of the ride.

I hope the family sues the fuck out of this shithole because not only is this utterly horrific, and devastating, it's also entirely inexcusable. Christ, that poor kid, and his poor family.

God, what an absolutely nightmarish thing to happen...
 
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Not necessarily. Ever heard of Verruckt?

That thing was a poorly-designed deathtrap from the beginning. Some kid lost his head, the entire park closed, and the ride's designers faced criminal charges.
That's a water slide, not a drop tower.

Also I was referring to the overall amount of accidents. That's was over 5 years ago
 
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Guilty as charged. I have a very low threshold for hurtling induced terror. I’ll just about get in those ‘meander round the fake rainforest in a fake river in a fake barrel boat’ rides but I draw the line just before the teacups. It is what it is
I legit had a relationship end one time because I don't do roller coasters. Give me some ketamine and a lazy river any day.
 
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