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

 

[stupid frog]

If they didn't give him weight/size limits to enforce, then his defense will be "I put the guy in the seat like usual, the restraint locked and the light on the control panel turned green, which meant everything was fine". He's definitely fucked if he ignored the rules though.

I have a feeling he wasn't trained properly. Either way, I think his life is going to be ruined.

 

[inception_state]

Obviously the harness could not properly be secured because of his combined height and girth. This is going to be an issue for the brain dead carnies when the lawyers come to feed. The manufacturer might get in trouble too seeing as there was no secondary safety measures like a belt or harness. Terrible way to go.

If what the carnie said at the end of the video was accurate, the light was on indicating that everything was good to go. That does seem like a genuine design flaw as well, that the restraint could be in an unsafe position (providing enough space for a person to fall out) but indicate that the ride was safe to start.

I have a feeling he wasn't trained properly. Either way, I think his life is going to be ruined.

Oh definitely, even just the civil suits, depositions, and PTSD from having someone go "splat" on a ride he was operating will make his life hell if they don't charge him criminally.

 

[Absurdity]

If what the carnie said at the end of the video was accurate, the light was on indicating that everything was good to go. That does seem like a genuine design flaw as well, that the restraint could be in an unsafe position (providing enough space for a person to fall out) but indicate that the ride was safe to start.


Oh definitely, even just the civil suits, depositions, and PTSD from having someone go "splat" on a ride he was operating will make his life hell if they don't charge him criminally.

Well in that case, he might luck out because there's wayyyyy more money to be had in going after the manufacturer.

 

[stupid frog]

Well in that case, he might luck out because there's wayyyyy more money to be had in going after the manufacturer.

Nah, they're (company) definitely going to try to blame it all on him. He will get dragged in to it.

I do not think he is free of fault, but I think the problem is more on the company side.
The fact he did improper check (I am not rewatching to confirm) and used the light as the main source is what makes me think he wasn't trained right. Also the fact this ride is so new.

We can say carnies are stupid fucks, but when you repeat actions so many times, it becomes a thoughtless process. I do not see someone who is going through familiar motions.

 

[Fwiffo]

He didn't even look like a citizen.


View attachment 3110029
Ya'll really think this ride was ride was safe for SIR Boobsalot ShitshisBritches? He looks like a less charismatic Harvey Price.

This looks like a photoshopped pic of Russell Greer as an overweight black lesbian.

Theoretically a free-fall ride like this should be more accommodating for large or fat people, since acceleration is only in one direction (up/down) unlike more complex rides. The deceleration should push the passengers into the seat, not out of it.

From looking at the footage, I'd guess it was a combination of:
- The restraint not being ratcheted in all the way due to the guy's size, providing enough space to slip out
- The guy simply being too large in girth for the seat, meaning that his center of gravity was not directly over the seat as it should have been
- The guy freaking out as the ride came down, if he was flipping out and squirming that could have been the final straw that made him slip through the gap in the restraint. You can see his legs kicking wildly in the video, and he apparently was very nervous according to the guy next to him.


If they didn't give him weight/size limits to enforce, then his defense will be "I put the guy in the seat like usual, the restraint locked and the light on the control panel turned green, which meant everything was fine". He's definitely fucked if he ignored the rules though.

The thing about tremendously fat people is, well, they are squishy. It’s tough to keep their mass contained in a specific dimension, like a water balloon sliding through a grate. This is one of the reasons they don’t let fat people on thrill rides: it’s less that the restraints will break, but that their blubber allows them to basically squirt through the restraints. This sounds stupid, but it’s true. There’s a similar phenomenon with babies in car seats. It’s extremely dangerous to put a baby in a puffy snow suit inside a car seat, since an accident can see the winter clothes compress and the kid basically slips straight out.

I think this kid’s gut prevented the bar from going low enough, while he was also slightly inclined due to fitting into the seat poorly (think of a fat man reclining on a couch). Since there was no crotch restraint, he squirted straight out. And now a kid is dead.

At least it was quick. He probably was dead before he could even think “wait what the fuck”

 

[Roast Chicken]

At least it was quick. He probably was dead before he could even think “wait what the fuck”

The guy sitting next to him said he was panicking and said that the restraints didn't feel right. He spent that ride being terrified before the inevitable happened.

 

[Prescription Bugs]

I feel so bad for the parents. Losing your kid is bad enough, but to lose him on a day that's supposed to be fun and in such a horrific way

I stopped getting on amusement park rides after my brother worked at one for a summer. He explained that almost all the workers are underpaid teenagers or criminal junkies that maintenance checks were half assed at best.

Make fun all you like, I won’t step foot on a ride that isn’t Disney or Universal. Even those have killed people but they spend so much more money, settle well with families and have a reputation to lose and I think tend to be more safe generally.

I remember one fair or small theme park around a few years back that had a merry-go-round swing set. Some time later, that SAME attraction fell over during use. I went on it, but before that incident.

Carny rides are poorly maintained and overlooked. Use at your own risk.

At a state fair I once saw one of those rides where like 30 people sit in rows and then they flip the entire thing over and over again, installed on the midway. The concrete blocks or whatever block they were using for support, were missing out from under one of the metal leg bases. And the carnies all toothless and mangled themselves were just letting it all happen. Like I almost got the idea they wanted someone to die and they were some sort of carney serial killer who got their own thrills from setting up midways rides poorly and hoping to get to see some skulls crack like watermelons by the funnel cake stand.

 

[Fliddaroonie]

Wait, the kid was wearing NASA shorts? Like an astronaut?

On a different note, a factor that hasn't been mentioned is why the operator didn't complete the safety checks: he was too busy flirting with the girl. It wasn't simple laziness, he was just too busy flirting to check that Major Tom's safety harness was secure.

Maybe they didn't want to get into a spat with the parents of an obese nigger about how he's too much of a fucking fatass to safely ride?

Similarly, it's shit optics to have demented sheboons booting off because TreySharvarnaE had to get off the ride so best to not even go there.

 

[Sithis]

The guy sitting next to him said he was panicking and said that the restraints didn't feel right. He spent that ride being terrified before the inevitable happened.

Yeah, you can hear someone saying "seat belt seat belt" right as it starts ascending though I'm not sure its him. But you can clearly see him struggling just before the sudden halt of descent where he slides out. Its tragic as fuck but I think the kid knew what was going to happen before it did.

 

[Stop]

14 yet fat enough to look like a 26 year old.

 

[Water Underground]

The guy sitting next to him said he was panicking and said that the restraints didn't feel right. He spent that ride being terrified before the inevitable happened.

Did the guy next to him also say those Jordans the kid was wearing magically disappeared?

 

[snailslime]

Maybe they didn't want to get into a spat with the parents of an obese nigger about how he's too much of a fucking fatass to safely ride?

Similarly, it's shit optics to have demented sheboons booting off because TreySharvarnaE had to get off the ride so best to not even go there.

what a classy comment

 

[Cloaca Rimjob]

Even Humpty Dumpty is getting a gritty live action reboot smh

Late reply but cos it was a nog, I'm guessing it's netflix doing the adaption

 

[afternoon_tea]

If what the carnie said at the end of the video was accurate, the light was on indicating that everything was good to go. That does seem like a genuine design flaw as well, that the restraint could be in an unsafe position (providing enough space for a person to fall out) but indicate that the ride was safe to start.


Oh definitely, even just the civil suits, depositions, and PTSD from having someone go "splat" on a ride he was operating will make his life hell if they don't charge him criminally.

Yeah, they ride can't start unless the harness was locked so I really don't think the issue was that, I think it's that his fat belly pushed the harness so far out that when his weight shifted his smaller top half was able to slide out the gap.

That definitely seems like the kind of thing they need to take into account with ride design in our fatso country. Probably it shouldn't even be able to lock while pushed out that far because that huge fat belly body shape is so common now and when the squishy fat gets pushed down by the force of the ride it's not going to be able to secure the person's relatively smaller top half.

 

[MunsterCheese]

interesting to read that his father and other attractions knew not to let him on cause of his weight/size...curious to learn on how he was able to get on this ride...was it peer pressure from his friends? Guy had to know that if he couldn't ride other rides, he probably couldn't ride this one...

was the staff afraid of confrontation in fear of claims of racism going viral? Ride operators would've been fucked either way, cause social media.

Combo of both?

Yes, the father that wasn't there. The father that let his son go to another state on an amusement park visit with friends. A father who knows AFTER THE FACT. That the ride was unsafe. He has perfect hindsight.

Many rides have size/weight minimums and maximums. But not ALL rides have such limitations. This ride didn't have any maximums outside of "You need to be able to fit in the seat." The kid knows he has to check each ride to find out. What? Are they going to ban him from the spinning teacups too? This isn't a one size rules all rides game.

To us, it looks like he didn't fit in the seat. But to the carney, the harness locked, the light was green. He was good to go. That seat harnesses in no way should have had the harness that high up as a viable locking position.

As far as the ethnic intimidation factor going on, all of the other ride operators told him he didn't pass the weight/height maximums. They were not ethnically intimidated. Of course they also had clear guideline limits and I assume a scale. I think this all comes down to not having clear guidelines in the limits of the ride. Passengers must be able to fit in the seat. How does the carney know that the passenger fits? Well the harness locks in place of course and the lock light turns green.

 

[Anstiv]

imagine being that afraid to die, i've been on every ride at disney and universal

There's a phrase I really like that describes how our intuitions/fears take over and control our life and make it worse when those fears aren't realistic/manifests infrequently. It's:

"If you've never missed a flight, you're spending too much time at airports."

I guess I can now add to that

"If you've never been on an amusement park ride, you're too afraid of dying."

 

[pixel_lion]

Mom is trying to get the internet to take the video down. I'm sorry ma'am, your son is here forever

 

[89elbees]

I'd be interested to see the results of this investigation. Sounds like the ride operator claims that 'the light was on,' meaning the ride itself said everyone was safely locked in. I'd be willing to bet that that's the only training this dude received in terms of ride safety - light's on, good. Light's out, bad. Assuming that claim was true, I dunno how they can blame the minimum wage kid operating the ride and not go after the company that made it instead.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Obviously the harness could not properly be secured because of his combined height and girth. This is going to be an issue for the brain dead carnies when the lawyers come to feed. The manufacturer might get in trouble too seeing as there was no secondary safety measures like a belt or harness. Terrible way to go.

It should rightfully fall more on the manufacturer. This is a very new state of the art attraction. It only opened in December. It had individual seat restraint sensors. And every seat had a green indicator light to mark that seat as properly secured. The ride is disabled and unable to begin a cycle unless all seats are reporting green.

 

[Homefries]

I'd be interested to see the results of this investigation. Sounds like the ride operator claims that 'the light was on,' meaning the ride itself said everyone was safely locked in. I'd be willing to bet that that's the only training this dude received in terms of ride safety - light's on, good. Light's out, bad. Assuming that claim was true, I dunno how they can blame the minimum wage kid operating the ride and not go after the company that made it instead.

Definitely. Easy to blame the guy for missing that and he certainly has some blame here but the real perp is whoever owns the ride and was making money by staffing it with workers who were obviously not doing adequate safety assessments.