ORLANDO, Fla. — Prominent attorney Ben Crump has visited ICON Park, along with his private team of investigators.
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They inspected the free-fall ride after a teen fell from it and died last month.
Crump did not say what his investigators found during their brief inspection. They spent about two hours checking out the ride, focusing their attention on the seats as they tried to figure out what led to the teen’s fatal fall.
Crump is one of two lawyers representing the family of 14-year-old Tyre Sampson.
READ: ICON Park calls for FreeFall, SlingShot rides to suspend operations following teen’s death
New video shows Crump’s investigators going seat by seat, taking measurements.
Following the inspection, Eyewitness News caught up with Crump, who said the tragedy could have been avoided.
“We’re here doing a thorough investigation into the tragic killing of this 14-year-old child who should have never been killed,” Crump said. “We believe this was completely preventable.”
READ: Safety expert: ‘I have serious concerns’ about harness in teen’s death on Orlando FreeFall
We caught up with Crump following his team’s brief inspection of the ride. He wouldn’t go into detail about anything that stood out after getting a closer look at the ride, but he said this tragedy could have been prevented. @WFTV pic.twitter.com/2Y8zdRNtu2
— Christy Turner (@CTurnerWFTV) April 5, 2022
On Monday, inspectors for the state were looking at the ride’s seats, measuring them and using diagrams to recreate the incident.
“We are fully committed to finding out what happened so we can better prevent such tragedies from happening in the future,” said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.
Fried’s office oversees theme park rides.
The state had hired a team of forensic engineers and failure analysts to conduct the inspection.
READ: 9 things to know about the Orlando FreeFall at ICON Park
After the investigation, state agencies will decide if they need to make changes to the existing rules under their existing authority.
“We will not be jumping to any conclusions before the information is provided to us and we know all the facts,” Fried said.
The accident report reveals the ride did not malfunction.
The ride’s manual shows Sampson may have been over the ride’s weight limit.
An attorney for the ride’s parent company, SlingShot, said they are welcomes the state inspectors and is are happy to accept any kind of changes the state would like to make to the ride.
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