The Austrian company that built the Orlando Free Fall ride, where a 14-year-old boy fell to his death, has sold a similar drop tower to a Texas theme park. It will be installed at COTALAND, at Circuit of the Americas in Austin. The planned ride will be “redundantly safe,” according to COTALAND spokesperson Allie Stone. It’s being built despite the fact that the manufacturer, Funtime Handels, was found negligent and has yet to pay any money to the family of Tyre Sampson, as ordered by a Judge in the ninth circuit court in Orange County.A jury awarded the family $310 million.”They killed my son. That’s how I look at it,” Sampson’s mother, Nekia Dodd, told WESH 2 Investigates in an exclusive interview. “That is horrible! It’s horrible. No mother should go through this.” Dodd said she’s not sure her broken heart will ever heal, as she talked about the future her son will never have. This year, she would have taken her son to college, where he dreamed of playing football. Instead, she spends some of her days quietly by his grave site near the family’s home in St. Louis. “I should be telling you what he’s going to be, not what he could have been. This is so unfair,” Dodd said. Sampson was visiting Orlando on March 24, 2022, with a friend and his family on spring break, when they decided to board the 430-foot-tall drop tower ride on International Drive. The ride ascended, then stopped and the seats tilted forward, and the seating carriage dropped. Workers were heard on cellphone video telling patrons as they boarded that the ride would reach a speed of 75 mph. As the brakes were applied to stop the seating carriage, the teen fell from his seat and landed in front of horrified patrons. An autopsy revealed that he died of blunt force trauma. On 911 calls obtained by WESH 2 investigates, people are heard saying, “We have a man who fell off the tower!” “Please help!” “When it hit the brakes, the guy fell right out of the seat.” Ride operators were seen on cellphone video scrambling to get help while questioning each other about whether Sampson was properly harnessed in his seat. In one exchange, workers are heard saying, “Did you check him? Yeah. The light was on. We checked him.” State engineers later confirmed what WESH 2 Investigates first exposed in several reports, citing experts familiar with the ride technology: two seats were improperly adjusted, so the shoulder harness could handle large riders. With no safety belt, Tyre slipped out when the ride tilted, dropped and braked. The manufacturer’s maximum recommended rider weight, found in the operations and maintenance manual obtained from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services through a public records request, was 287 pounds. Sampson weighed 383 pounds at the time of his death. The ride owner, Orlando Eagle Drop Slingshot, paid a $250,000 fine, dismantled and hauled away the Free Fall, and settled a negligence lawsuit brought by Sampson’s parents for an undisclosed amount. But the family also sued ride manufacturer Funtime Handels, and during testimony in December 2024, Dodd told jurors, “They (Funtime Handels) robbed me. They robbed him. They robbed us.” The teen’s father, Yarnell Sampson, added, “I lost something when I lost my child.” Funtime Handels declined to appear for the trial, and the jury awarded Dodd and Sampson $310 million. 14 months later, Funtime Handels has yet to pay any of the amount. Dodd said during our recent interview, “That is crazy. It’s just crazy. I hate this. I mean, it’s just slapping me in my face over and over and over. I mean, the judgment, you (Funtime Handels) didn’t even show up!” Funtime still has a big presence in Florida. It made the StarFlyer ride and Slingshot ride near the site where the Free Fall used to be. They’re operated by Orlando Eagle Drop Slingshot, which has no role in the drop tower planned for COTALAND. According to the city of Austin Aviation Department, the drop tower will be 218 feet tall, about half as tall as the Free Fall, according to the “air space review” obtained by WESH 2 Investigates. According to NBC affiliate KXAN, COTALAND Chair and founder Bobby Epstein said the new drop tower is a duplicate of the Drop Line attraction at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Drop Line does not tilt forward. Epstein also told KXAN COTALAND’s drop tower will have seat belts in addition to shoulder harnesses. He said it will have a maximum per rider weight limit of 286 pounds, and a scale will be placed in the loading area to confirm riders can safely board. A COTALAND spokesperson, vice president of marketing Griffin Tendler, emailed WESH 2 Investigates a statement saying in part, “COTALAND had no involvement in, connection to, or responsibility for the tragic incident that occurred in Orlando. We respectfully disagree with the premise that the use of the same manufacturer alone establishes a safety concern. No unauthorized modifications have been made to the ride or its safety systems.” WESH 2 Investigates also obtained the bill of lading showing that at least a portion of the COTALAND drop tower was delivered from Funtime Handels in Austria to COTALAND on April 20, 2023, one month after Free Fall was dismantled and hauled away from its Orlando site. Epstein told KXAN that no parts from the Orlando drop tower are being used at COTALAND. But the different safety measures don’t satisfy Sampson’s mother. Dodd said, “(COTALAND) should be ashamed.” Dodd’s attorney, Michael Haggard, added, “(Funtime Handels) made an absolute death trap.” He’s not satisfied with the safety differences and is critical of another American theme park using a foreign ride maker’s products, when that ride maker has yet to satisfy a U.S. court’s judgment in a negligence case. Haggard says he’ll soon file an injunction in a Texas court to try and prevent the Funtime Handels drop tower from being constructed, adding, “We’re going to record the judgment that was done in Orlando, Florida, record it in Austin and try to stop them from opening the ride.””I think you need to put the brakes on it,” said Democratic Orlando congressman Maxwell Frost, in an exclusive interview with WESH 2 Investigates. Frost wants the construction of any new Funtime Handels rides halted in the U.S. until his office meets with the Departments of State and Commerce. They, or Congress, could take action to prevent Funtime Handels and other foreign companies from doing business in America, while shirking U.S. court judgments, adding, “We know there are some bad actors and If we don’t aggressively pursue both justice and accountability in those instances, who is to say what’s going to happen in the future so I think this is something that has to be looked into.” As an example of potential actions the federal government could take, Haggard points to the Drywall Safety Act, passed by Congress in 2012 and signed into law by President Barack Obama in January 2013. It banned the import of Chinese-made drywall that was sold in the U.S. during the prior decade because of high concentrations of sulfur that can emit hydrogen sulfide. It can cause debilitating health conditions, including respiratory problems and headaches. Large amounts of the drywall were sold in Florida between 2001 and 2009, and litigation to settle claims against distributors is ongoing. COTALAND declined a request for an on-camera interview regarding its planned drop tower ride. Construction and opening dates have not been released. Repeated WESH 2 Investigates emails to Funtime Handels have not been returned.

The Austrian company that built the Orlando Free Fall ride, where a 14-year-old boy fell to his death, has sold a similar drop tower to a Texas theme park.

It will be installed at COTALAND, at Circuit of the Americas in Austin.

The planned ride will be “redundantly safe,” according to COTALAND spokesperson Allie Stone.

It’s being built despite the fact that the manufacturer, Funtime Handels, was found negligent and has yet to pay any money to the family of Tyre Sampson, as ordered by a Judge in the ninth circuit court in Orange County.

A jury awarded the family $310 million.

“They killed my son. That’s how I look at it,” Sampson’s mother, Nekia Dodd, told WESH 2 Investigates in an exclusive interview. “That is horrible! It’s horrible. No mother should go through this.”

Dodd said she’s not sure her broken heart will ever heal, as she talked about the future her son will never have. This year, she would have taken her son to college, where he dreamed of playing football.

Instead, she spends some of her days quietly by his grave site near the family’s home in St. Louis.

“I should be telling you what he’s going to be, not what he could have been. This is so unfair,” Dodd said.

Sampson was visiting Orlando on March 24, 2022, with a friend and his family on spring break, when they decided to board the 430-foot-tall drop tower ride on International Drive.

The ride ascended, then stopped and the seats tilted forward, and the seating carriage dropped.

Workers were heard on cellphone video telling patrons as they boarded that the ride would reach a speed of 75 mph.

As the brakes were applied to stop the seating carriage, the teen fell from his seat and landed in front of horrified patrons. An autopsy revealed that he died of blunt force trauma.

On 911 calls obtained by WESH 2 investigates, people are heard saying, “We have a man who fell off the tower!” “Please help!” “When it hit the brakes, the guy fell right out of the seat.”

Ride operators were seen on cellphone video scrambling to get help while questioning each other about whether Sampson was properly harnessed in his seat.

In one exchange, workers are heard saying, “Did you check him? Yeah. The light was on. We checked him.”

State engineers later confirmed what WESH 2 Investigates first exposed in several reports, citing experts familiar with the ride technology: two seats were improperly adjusted, so the shoulder harness could handle large riders.

With no safety belt, Tyre slipped out when the ride tilted, dropped and braked. The manufacturer’s maximum recommended rider weight, found in the operations and maintenance manual obtained from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services through a public records request, was 287 pounds.

Sampson weighed 383 pounds at the time of his death.

The ride owner, Orlando Eagle Drop Slingshot, paid a $250,000 fine, dismantled and hauled away the Free Fall, and settled a negligence lawsuit brought by Sampson’s parents for an undisclosed amount.

But the family also sued ride manufacturer Funtime Handels, and during testimony in December 2024, Dodd told jurors, “They (Funtime Handels) robbed me. They robbed him. They robbed us.”

The teen’s father, Yarnell Sampson, added, “I lost something when I lost my child.”

Funtime Handels declined to appear for the trial, and the jury awarded Dodd and Sampson $310 million. 14 months later, Funtime Handels has yet to pay any of the amount.

Dodd said during our recent interview, “That is crazy. It’s just crazy. I hate this. I mean, it’s just slapping me in my face over and over and over. I mean, the judgment, you (Funtime Handels) didn’t even show up!”

Funtime still has a big presence in Florida. It made the StarFlyer ride and Slingshot ride near the site where the Free Fall used to be. They’re operated by Orlando Eagle Drop Slingshot, which has no role in the drop tower planned for COTALAND.

According to the city of Austin Aviation Department, the drop tower will be 218 feet tall, about half as tall as the Free Fall, according to the “air space review” obtained by WESH 2 Investigates.

According to NBC affiliate KXAN, COTALAND Chair and founder Bobby Epstein said the new drop tower is a duplicate of the Drop Line attraction at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Drop Line does not tilt forward.

Epstein also told KXAN COTALAND’s drop tower will have seat belts in addition to shoulder harnesses. He said it will have a maximum per rider weight limit of 286 pounds, and a scale will be placed in the loading area to confirm riders can safely board.

A COTALAND spokesperson, vice president of marketing Griffin Tendler, emailed WESH 2 Investigates a statement saying in part, “COTALAND had no involvement in, connection to, or responsibility for the tragic incident that occurred in Orlando. We respectfully disagree with the premise that the use of the same manufacturer alone establishes a safety concern. No unauthorized modifications have been made to the ride or its safety systems.”

WESH 2 Investigates also obtained the bill of lading showing that at least a portion of the COTALAND drop tower was delivered from Funtime Handels in Austria to COTALAND on April 20, 2023, one month after Free Fall was dismantled and hauled away from its Orlando site.

Epstein told KXAN that no parts from the Orlando drop tower are being used at COTALAND.

But the different safety measures don’t satisfy Sampson’s mother. Dodd said, “(COTALAND) should be ashamed.”

Dodd’s attorney, Michael Haggard, added, “(Funtime Handels) made an absolute death trap.”

He’s not satisfied with the safety differences and is critical of another American theme park using a foreign ride maker’s products, when that ride maker has yet to satisfy a U.S. court’s judgment in a negligence case.

Haggard says he’ll soon file an injunction in a Texas court to try and prevent the Funtime Handels drop tower from being constructed, adding, “We’re going to record the judgment that was done in Orlando, Florida, record it in Austin and try to stop them from opening the ride.”

“I think you need to put the brakes on it,” said Democratic Orlando congressman Maxwell Frost, in an exclusive interview with WESH 2 Investigates.

Frost wants the construction of any new Funtime Handels rides halted in the U.S. until his office meets with the Departments of State and Commerce.

They, or Congress, could take action to prevent Funtime Handels and other foreign companies from doing business in America, while shirking U.S. court judgments, adding, “We know there are some bad actors and If we don’t aggressively pursue both justice and accountability in those instances, who is to say what’s going to happen in the future so I think this is something that has to be looked into.”

As an example of potential actions the federal government could take, Haggard points to the Drywall Safety Act, passed by Congress in 2012 and signed into law by President Barack Obama in January 2013.

It banned the import of Chinese-made drywall that was sold in the U.S. during the prior decade because of high concentrations of sulfur that can emit hydrogen sulfide. It can cause debilitating health conditions, including respiratory problems and headaches.

Large amounts of the drywall were sold in Florida between 2001 and 2009, and litigation to settle claims against distributors is ongoing.

COTALAND declined a request for an on-camera interview regarding its planned drop tower ride.

Construction and opening dates have not been released.

Repeated WESH 2 Investigates emails to Funtime Handels have not been returned.