Investigative Summary:
A KXAN investigation found a foreign ride maker — found negligent in the 2022 death of a teen in Florida — is producing a new drop tower ride at COTALAND in Austin. COTALAND said its drop tower will be significantly different and safer. The teen’s family is trying to block its ride from being built, arguing the manufacturer shouldn’t be allowed to do business in the U.S. after failing to pay a court judgment in the teen’s death.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A family’s fight to hold a foreign ride maker accountable for their son’s death is putting the Circuit of the Americas’ new theme park, COTALAND — which is set to fully open this year — in the crosshairs of their attorney. He plans to file an injunction in the coming weeks to stop the construction of a drop tower ride, even though COTALAND officials said theirs will be a substantially different and “more traditional” ride with significant safety improvements.
‘Slapped me in my face’
Next month marks four years since Tyre Sampson, 14, was killed. The teen fell out of his shoulder safety harness while riding a drop tower attraction in Orlando, Florida, as it descended from more than 400 feet in the air, according to engineers hired by the state to investigate.
“My life stopped. My life stopped March 24 when I lost my son,” Sampson’s mother, Nekia Dodd, told WESH, the NBC affiliate in Orlando. “It does not go on.”…