ORLANDO, Fla. — On the one year anniversary of a teenager’s fall to his death, the Florida Legislature is considering a pair of bills designed to enhance safety requirements for new attractions and shield investigative material from the public during an active ride incident investigation.

On March 24, 2022, Tyre Sampson, 14, was visiting Orlando from St. Louis, Missouri, when he slipped through the restraints of the Orlando FreeFall ride and fell to his death.

During March 2023, following significant public pressure and insistence from Sampson’s family, Orlando Eagle Drop Slighshot LLC, the owner and operator of the ride, dismantled the attraction.

Meanwhile, the Florida Legislature is working through a series of bills connected to ride safety and public disclosure.

SB 902, also dubbed the “Tyre Sampson Act,” has new safety provisions for rides established after July 1, 2023, when the law, if passed, goes into effect. Some of those include adding redundant safety restraints for rides more than 100 feet tall.

During her first visit to Florida earlier this month, Sampson’s mother, Nekia Dodd, toured the FreeFall ride as it was preparing to come down. She said adding the redundant safety restraints for rides was highly necessary.

“I’m very excited they did decide to add those in. It will save another child’s and another family’s life. The extra restraints were needed prior to this happening. They were needed from the start,” she said.

The Tyre Sampson Act would also require new attractions to have a ride commissioning and to keep a “certification report on file with the department before the department conducts the permanent amusement ride’s first inspection and issues a permit for the permanent amusement ride.”

Ride safety expert Brian Avery said he was also glad the word “general” was stricken from the following clause concerning both permanent and temporary amusement park attractions:

“An annual affidavit of compliance and nondestructive testing certifying that the amusement ride was inspected in person by the affiant and that the amusement ride is in general conformance with the requirements of this section and all applicable department rules.”

He added that he would like to see the language of the bill be applied to all attractions and not just newly erected ones.

“I do wish it was more consistent and that everyone was subject to it. I do have some pause with respect to certifying all rides after July 2023,” Avery said. “I think that all rides should be certified that are existing currently and are moving forward. Almost a re-certification process, if you will.”

If SB 902 passes, that would also trigger SB 904, the Public Records/Active Amusement Ride Investigation bill. It shields investigative materials from public request while an investigation into a ride incident is ongoing.

During Dodd’s visit to the FreeFall attraction, one of her attorneys, Michael Haggard, said that’s something that should be taken out of consideration.

“Nekia doesn’t want that. We would not have known what happened. If you remember originally when this happened, everybody thought the seat failed. We did not know it was manipulated,” Haggard said. “So, Nekia and I have talked about that. We’ve talked to Senator Thompson about getting that out of the bill. The press should be able to find out immediately what happened and, most importantly, the families should know and the rest of the industry.”

Earlier last year, the state hired an engineering consulting firm to analyze the ride, and published their analysis. The analysis revealed two specific seats had been manipulated, allowing the ride to operate even if the harnesses on those seats didn’t fully close. Ride attendants were trained to direct larger guests to those two specific seats, according to the state’s investigative report and a former employee who spoke with Spectrum News over the phone.

Both bills were sponsored by State Sen. Geraldine Thompson who represents the district where the Orlando FreeFall attraction once stood. As of Friday, both SB 902 and SB 904 were in the Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government.