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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So its the side profile guy in the video correct? The staff should be held accountable. It is so obvious they didn't give a fuck. You're supposed to check the handles and guard things. They always do it at Disney for example.

But speaking of Disney, I was there when the poor kid died operating the monorail. He got crushed to death and they officially retired the color vehicle of the series.
 
Why are the workers and the passengers so calm?
It's called shock lol.
Never seen the video of the guy flipping his car and then poking his head out the driver's window (which was now pointing up) and be all:
"Oi 's all right chap, cheerio then. God save the queen"? (not actually what he said, but close)
 
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Pretty safe to say fat boy didn't have his harness shut and the dumbass who was supposed to make sure it was secured half-assed their job. It wasn't a harness failure. That shit was never even secured in the first place.
 

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Shocking to me that this ride didn't have a 'bottom' belt, for lack of a better term, and/or a proper seatbelt... I've never ridden anything like this that didn't. I'm even more shocked by the employees' reactions. There's no 'right' way to react to something as tragic as this but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say casually strolling over to the *clearly deceased* body and saying "yo dude, but like, did you check him?" is... not the right reaction with a fresh body on the ground and every single traumatized passenger still strapped into the ride.
 
Shocking to me that this ride didn't have a 'bottom' belt, for lack of a better term, and/or a proper seatbelt... I've never ridden anything like this that didn't. I'm even more shocked by the employees' reactions. There's no 'right' way to react to something as tragic as this but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say casually strolling over to the *clearly deceased* body and saying "yo dude, but like, did you check him?" is... not the right reaction with a fresh body on the ground and every single traumatized passenger still strapped into the ride.
It's a perfect reaction for the upcoming trial.
Why ask that, if you don't keep tabs on each other while "checking" the passengers?
 
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
Do you have any news articles about the slingshot story?
 
Why are the workers and the passengers so calm?
Because this isn't a movie and they aren't actors that need to be all dramatic in front of a camera. IRL only a few hysterical women go crazy when they see an accident. People generally don't panic and start screaming and running unless there's an active threat. Instead they tend to rubberneck for a bit and then walk away or just kinda ignore it and carry on whatever they were doing.

Yes, I've seen it IRL. Hell, I've done it IRL.
 
Side note: kid was apparently called Tyre Samson, pic may be him but ymmv since all the sources are one story c+p'd across various sites.

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Story claims he was into football and shit, so that's part of why he's massive, but looks like he was all-around hefty.
Well, it looks like even if he had a spare tire... his family doesn't.

(Okay, I'm going to hell, but I'm pretty sure this isn't the only thing I've posted to earn that fate.)
 
@89elbees They did nothing because they knew that there was nothing they could do. No amount of heroics was going to save that kid after the fact. As rushing to let the passengers out of the ride, I can understand them being preoccupied with the dead sack of fat that remained gurgling on the ground. They had zero training and practice on what to do in case of an accident.

That said, the chad move to have made would have been to continue to let the ride go up and down for the original three more times. People go on those rides for the thrills and adrenaline rush. Can you imagine the terror of riding that three more times just after you saw one of the riders fall to their death and go splat? Should have given them the ultimate Null thrill.
 
Because this isn't a movie and they aren't actors that need to be all dramatic in front of a camera. IRL only a few hysterical women go crazy when they see an accident. People generally don't panic and start screaming and running unless there's an active threat. Instead they tend to rubberneck for a bit and then walk away or just kinda ignore it and carry on whatever they were doing.

Yes, I've seen it IRL. Hell, I've done it IRL.
I don't expect a total meltdown but I expect the workers to be more alert. But it could be I never expected a person dying in front of me.
 
Because this isn't a movie and they aren't actors that need to be all dramatic in front of a camera. IRL only a few hysterical women go crazy when they see an accident. People generally don't panic and start screaming and running unless there's an active threat. Instead they tend to rubberneck for a bit and then walk away or just kinda ignore it and carry on whatever they were doing.

Yes, I've seen it IRL. Hell, I've done it IRL.
It's an automatic response by the brain in reaction to extreme stress - generally, it's so the person/people can get the fuck away from the thing that presumably is about to kill or seriously hurt them.
 
It's an automatic response by the brain in reaction to extreme stress - generally, it's so the person/people can get the fuck away from the thing that presumably is about to kill or seriously hurt them.
Which won't trigger if there's no active threat. The thing where people puke when they see a dead body? That's also something that only happens in books and movies. Unless you get a good whiff. Then the smell might make you puke if you have a delicate stomach.
 
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