Gabrielle Russon
After a teenager fell from an amusement park ride to his death during his Orlando spring break trip, the Legislature has passed a bill making sweeping safety changes.
The House unanimously approved SB 902, which is known as “The Tyre Sampson Act.”
“When people visit our state, they should trust that all of our amusement parks, whether they have 20 employees or 2,000 employees, are being held to a certain safety standard,” said Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis, who sponsored the House version of the bill paired with Sen. Geraldine Thompson’s Senate bill.
“This is the new standard. And this will ensure that tragedies like the one that happened to Tyre and his family will never happen again.”
The bill’s name honors Tyre Sampson, a 14-year-old from Missouri, who fell more than 400 feet after he slipped out of his seat on the Orlando Free Fall drop tower at International Drive’s ICON Park in 2022.
The bill requires amusement rides to post signs about height/weight requirements and medical conditions that would keep passengers from riding.
If signed, the bill would also require ride operators to report major ride modifications after a ride has already been permitted to the state, require training for ride operators and allow state investigators to show up unannounced for ride inspections.
Nekia Dodd, Sampson’s mother, said in a statement she believes the changes “will save another child’s life.”
The bill doesn’t apply to the major theme parks: Disney World, Universal Orlando, SeaWorld Orlando, Legoland Florida and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, which are exempt from many of the requirements for smaller amusement rides and handle their own safety inspections.
Along with the Tyre Sampson Act, the Legislature unanimously passed a records exemption bill that will delay the media and the public from finding out information when someone is hurt or killed on an amusement park ride.
SB 904 allows the Florida Department of Agriculture to delay releasing investigation records for ride accidents until after the investigation is finished.
Michael Haggard, a lawyer representing Sampson’s mother, previously told Florida Politics he was against the bill, pointing out how crucial those records were when the media reported on Tyre’s death and what went wrong at the attraction.
“The public needs to know. The family needs to know. We’re a tourism state. You can’t hide,” Haggard said last month.
