Park-goers reportedly questioned the safety of the Orlando free-fall amusement park ride before 14-year-old Tyre Samson fell from it to his death, according to the man who filmed the tragic plunge.
The witness, only identified as Ivan, told a local source that he filmed from below as his friends questioned the safety restraints on the ICON park ride.
“Why doesn’t this have the little clicky click? The seatbelt,” his friend asked a ride employee in an interaction caught on video, the outlet reported.
According to Ivan, the friends were complaining about the ride’s lack of additional seatbelts.
“In most rides, you have your harness that pulls down on you. But you also have the additional secondary seatbelt,” he said. “This does not have that. And it’s really concerning especially being a new ride not to have that.”
Ivan said his pals were just two seats away from Tyre, who fell to his death from the ride as it was about halfway down its 430-foot descent on Thursday.
“This could have been one of my friends that it happened to,” he said. “It’s not what you would expect from a ride in the heart of Orlando. We’re known for our amusement parks, for our thrill rides.”
After the shocking plunge, a park employee could be heard asking her colleagues, in the video, if they properly checked the victim.
“Did you check him?” one employee asks her colleagues. ” The light was on. We did check him,” another employee replies.
However, authorities said the cause of the fatal fall remains under investigation.
Tyre’s grieving father said his son felt uncomfortable and freaked out as soon as the ride began to ascend. The teen then told a friend beside him: “If I don’t make it down, tell…Please tell my mama and daddy I love them.”
Tyre’s dad said during an interview that his son must have felt something for him to say something like that.
