Australia - 4 people dead on Dreamworld's Thunder River Rapids ride, Gold Coast, 2016

[DexterMorgan]

This is the ride.

 

[scrambledeggs]

Is this like supposed to add ambiance or is it just a piece of shu#~ I truly cannot tell

I haven't been to Dreamworld since I was a kid but I think it's supposed to look like that. It's got an abandoned mining town feel to that section of the park.

 

[Tulessa]

Edited. I thought it was white water rafting.

 

[symbah]

Its now been revealed that the items apparently stolen from the husband of one of the women who died at Dreamworld were in fact not stolen.

http://www.newshub.co.nz/world/drea...-stolen-as-he-tried-to-save-victim-2016102616
Australia's Seven Network earlier quoted relatives saying Kate Goodchild's husband's wallet and phone was stolen from their child's pram as he desperately tried to help save his wife from under the raft.
However the network has since reported that the items were picked up by a police officer or paramedic and have since been returned.

 

[Safeguard]

. This is a terrible tragedy. I've read if anyone is criminally responsible they face up to 5 years in jail and the park may never reopen. I'm glad Australia is tough on these incidents unlike the Verruckt tragedy in the states this summer.

Rsbm.

I wish they would just shut the dang rides down, if they are experiencing problems, get them fully tested, repaired and safe before allowing access. In both of these fatal accidents, (Thunder River, and Verruckt), other riders had experienced problems earlier that the same day! Thunder River had to be shut down and drained, as rafts were, "Piling up" according to some witnesses... Verruckt riders, likewise, claimed staff was aware rafts were going air-born, and safety belts were coming undone mid ride.

I have no idea how one should go about owning/operating an Amusement Park , but this can't be right. There are almost always warning signs prior to these malfunctions, of some kind, as we have seen, but no one seems to take the warnings seriously enough.

Why-o-why are park staff allowed to Micky Mouse repairs on the fly, to quickly get people back on board? Too quickly as we have sadly been seeing as of late.

 

[symbah]

Rsbm.

I wish they would just shut the dang rides down, if they are experiencing problems, get them fully tested, repaired and before allowing access. In both of these fatal accidents, (Thunder River, and Verruckt), other riders had experienced problems earlier that the same day! Thunder River had to be shut down and drained, as rafts were, "Piling up" according to some witnesses... Verruckt riders, likewise, claimed staff was aware rafts were going air-born, and safety belts were coming undone mid ride.

I have no idea how one should go about owning/operating an Amusement Park , but this can't be right. There are almost always warning signs prior to these malfunctions, of some kind, as we have seen, but no one seems to take the warnings seriously enough.

Why-o-why are park staff allowed to Micky Mouse repairs on the fly, to quickly get people back on board? Too quickly as we have sadly been seeing as of late.

I agree Safeguard. At Dreamworld, this was a tragedy waiting to happen!

https://au.news.yahoo.com/qld/a/330...amworld-two-weeks-before-fatal-tragedy/#page1
[h=1]'Someone will get seriously injured or killed': Mother's warning to Dreamworld two weeks before fatal tragedy[/h]

 

[emirates1957]

On the way home I heard the children of the deceased witnessed this horrific accident. I wonder how often these parks are audited for safety, mechanical procedures.....surely there would be stringent regulations. I'm sure we can all relate taking our children to fun parks, anticipating a day of excitement and revelling in your children's delight. I hope these kiddies and their families get the due support they need. What a tragedy.

 

[sweetcaro]

7 news tonight reported that the ride operator was an 18 year old on her first day. Maybe lack of experience has contributed? I'm curious to know how long it took to shut off tbe conveyor belt.

Sent from my SM-T550 using Tapatalk

 

[symbah]

7 news tonight reported that the ride operator was an 18 year old on her first day. Maybe lack of experience has contributed? I'm curious to know how long it took to shut off tbe conveyor belt.

Sent from my SM-T550 using Tapatalk

Oh dear, surely if it was her first day, someone would of been with her supervising?
Or, maybe her first day on her own after training & supervision?

 

[symbah]

https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/33014307/former-dreamworld-ride-operator-suspected-fatal-flaw/#page
7 News has been told that after the ride had reportedly malfunctioned twice earlier in the day the safety measure was being operated by an 18-year-old woman on her first day on the job.
It is understood the fatal incident was caused when a pump failed, causing the water level to lower and another raft to be stuck. The raft containing the passengers then collided and mounted the stationary raft, causing it to flip.

 

[CARIIS]

About the CEO:

From 2015 inteview

YEARLY passes to Dreamworld, WhiteWater World and Skypoint could become more expensive if CEO Craig Davidson has his way, after declaring the heavily-reduced-in-price annual passes are a "road to nowhere".
More than 250,000 Gold Coasters spend just $80 ......

Quite simply, annual passes at $80 a year is too cheap when you are trying to reinvest capital and when we have labour costs like we have in Australia and when we have food costs like we have - you just can't sustain that.

http://www.businessnewsaus.com.au/articles/theme-park-boss-calls-it-a--road-to-nowhere-.html

RE: Thunder River had to be shut down and drained, as rafts were, "Piling up" according to some witnesses...

My sense regarding the draining was afterward to try to keep them from drowning, not sure. But why would a solution to too little water be to remove it all - that makes no sense!

But if it happened that way, that is IMO some big stuff cause it basically means that is the EXACT reason for shutting it down earlier and what ultimately happened

I suppose it easier after the fact, that something went wrong but it would seem that if the water levels were problematic, one would be keeping an eye it

Uunless maybe no one thought that a loaded one would flip- like the worst that could happen is there would be a traffic jam- but it strikes me as damning that there was an empty one that they hit. Common sense would indicate that if you are worried about that issue an empty one in terms of how it sits in the water is not gonna give you much useful data (weight).

At the end of the day tho,its not like it was a pay for each ride setting - so why not just shut it down for the day till real checks could be done- yeh some people would have missed it that day, but really ? they got everyone money.

I wonder over there if there if their legal system is like ours -where 37% of us (!) will have passed before any of the ongoing criminal stuff we talk about here get to court!

Have always had very mixed feelings, in this kind of accident, if incaration is really needed.Money talks.Fine em and make them pay for outside consulting company, (selected by the court lets say) to evaluate before opening it up

 

[CARIIS]

ARDENT LEISURE SHARE PRICE PLUMMETS AFTER DREAMWORLD TRAGEDY

forecasting theme park revenue to fall by 20 per cent and EBIT by 33 per cent in FY17 due to the incident. "While any revenue/earnings implications are difficult to determine, negative customer sentiment is highly likely," the report says.

"Dreamworld's focus and priority is with the families of those involved in this tragedy and will be providing an update to the public as soon as information becomes available," the company says.
It makes for a sombre backdrop ahead of the company's AGM tomorrow, where the board will have to talk business despite the continuing investigation.

Specialist forensic and scientific officers, as well as detectives, are currently at the scene.
Investigators are interviewing a number of witnesses at nearby police stations with support services also being offered.

Stockbroker Morgans released a report last night saying the incident is expected to have a "meaningful impact" on the business, coming ahead of the theme park's key trading period.

http://www.businessnewsaus.com.au/a...-price-plummets-after-dreamworld-tragedy.html

 

[CARIIS]

Oh dear, surely if it was her first day, someone would of been with her supervising?
Or, maybe her first day on her own after training & supervision?

That is a really good question how long till it was cut off, and where it was in relation to being able to be seen from the platform.

I have this image of her being called operator when she was probably actually loading folks.

It would also be interesting to know how much lower the water level was than normal like clearly visible?

Was it busy - why would an empty one be there in the first place? I am trying to figure out why would run an empty one through - if there are no customers in line why not just let it sit at the station - or were they running a trial after all the problems earlier - and were those problems with the pump?

 

[CARIIS]

To accommodate all the new people coming to Websleuths because of the docuseries we are moving to a much bigger and faster server.

This is just a reminder that the Websleuths forum will be down starting Wednesday (tomorrow) at 6 PM Eastern. We hope to be back up by Thursday morning.

Is it going to play here??

 

[CARIIS]

Is this like supposed to add ambiance or is it just a piece of shu#~ I truly cannot tell

mooA couple of the things that bothered were the pile of wood on the left - there is a gap in the two by 4's and it looks like that gear thing has something to do with "functionality " and looks neglected

 

[PrimeSuspect]

https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/33014307/former-dreamworld-ride-operator-suspected-fatal-flaw/#page
7 News has been told that after the ride had reportedly malfunctioned twice earlier in the day the safety measure was being operated by an 18-year-old woman on her first day on the job.
It is understood the fatal incident was caused when a pump failed, causing the water level to lower and another raft to be stuck. The raft containing the passengers then collided and mounted the stationary raft, causing it to flip.

If only it was the empty raft that flipped. :cry:

 

[CARIIS]

Tid Bits

Alison Barrett of Maurice Blackburn Lawyers told News Corp the maximum penalty a corporation faces is $3 million.TiIndividuals could be fined $600,000 or serve five years in prison.

That Yahoo link has the actual FB post - its quite a read.

moment four people were killed in a horrific accident on the Thunder River Rapids ride at Dreamland on the Gold Coast was captured on CCTV.

Mr Araghi worked at the Australian Bureau of Statistics in Belconnen, Canberra.

The ride, which had been a functioning part of the park for 34 years, .............. was closed last weekend, but passed a safety inspection to re-open.

???????Witness Claire Wooley told 7 News she saw a young girl screaming for her mother while waiting with a friend, later confirmed to be her father, to go on the ride.

Investigators are examining CCTV of the incident and drone footage to help determine how the tragedy unfolded.

“We believe she was on the ride, I don’t believe she was in the same raft but we do understand it was her family involved and she was screaming for her mother,” she said.

Commissioner Codd said the tragedy deeply affected .......... first responders, police, paramedics and other emergency services who attended the incident.

seven ambulances

has been compared to 1979’s Sydney Luna Park Ghost Train inferno, which killed six children and one adult.

A New Zealand man says his group let the victims of the Dreamworld tragedy jump the queue on the ride that led to the death of four of them ............ recalled the moment he and his partner were about to get on the raft when they let the other group jump in first. ...... says the group were waiting for the mother to catch up for one final ride before their bus arrived. The Kiwis were already sitting in their raft but still in the conveyor belt when the accident happened so they managed to jump out safely.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/33001335/unconfirmed-reports-two-killed-at-dreamworld/#page1

https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/3...head-of-them-on-tragic-dreamworld-ride/#page1

 

[squish]

About the CEO:

From 2015 inteview

YEARLY passes to Dreamworld, WhiteWater World and Skypoint could become more expensive if CEO Craig Davidson has his way, after declaring the heavily-reduced-in-price annual passes are a "road to nowhere".
More than 250,000 Gold Coasters spend just $80 ......

Quite simply, annual passes at $80 a year is too cheap when you are trying to reinvest capital and when we have labour costs like we have in Australia and when we have food costs like we have - you just can't sustain that.

http://www.businessnewsaus.com.au/articles/theme-park-boss-calls-it-a--road-to-nowhere-.html

RE: Thunder River had to be shut down and drained, as rafts were, "Piling up" according to some witnesses...

My sense regarding the draining was afterward to try to keep them from drowning, not sure. But why would a solution to too little water be to remove it all - that makes no sense!

But if it happened that way, that is IMO some big stuff cause it basically means that is the EXACT reason for shutting it down earlier and what ultimately happened

I suppose it easier after the fact, that something went wrong but it would seem that if the water levels were problematic, one would be keeping an eye it

Uunless maybe no one thought that a loaded one would flip- like the worst that could happen is there would be a traffic jam- but it strikes me as damning that there was an empty one that they hit. Common sense would indicate that if you are worried about that issue an empty one in terms of how it sits in the water is not gonna give you much useful data (weight).

At the end of the day tho,its not like it was a pay for each ride setting - so why not just shut it down for the day till real checks could be done- yeh some people would have missed it that day, but really ? they got everyone money.

I wonder over there if there if their legal system is like ours -where 37% of us (!) will have passed before any of the ongoing criminal stuff we talk about here get to court!

Have always had very mixed feelings, in this kind of accident, if incaration is really needed.Money talks.Fine em and make them pay for outside consulting company, (selected by the court lets say) to evaluate before opening it up

I think the cause of the rafts getting stuck and flipping was too little water, but after the raft had flipped those who died were stuck face down, so they would have tried to prevent them from drowning by lowering the water.

 

[UnfoldingTruth]

7 news tonight reported that the ride operator was an 18 year old on her first day. Maybe lack of experience has contributed? I'm curious to know how long it took to shut off tbe conveyor belt.

Sent from my SM-T550 using Tapatalk

Oh dear, surely if it was her first day, someone would of been with her supervising?
Or, maybe her first day on her own after training & supervision?

I feel for this young lady . Along of course for the families and first responders involved.

But this 18 year old, on her first day...She should have had supervision. There should have been a more experienced operator there with her. I worked at Dreamworld myself as an 17 yr old many years ago now(different owners to Ardent Leisure who now own it).. from my memory it was policy to have at least 2 operators per ride. I can't help but think back to my time and how it would feel to be in her situation. I truly hope she has alot of support around her also at this time.

 

[UnfoldingTruth]

7 news tonight reported that the ride operator was an 18 year old on her first day. Maybe lack of experience has contributed? I'm curious to know how long it took to shut off tbe conveyor belt.

Sent from my SM-T550 using Tapatalk

Definitely meant to look like that. As PrimeSuspect and scrambledeggs said. Dreamworld has different themed areas, this ride was part of the Town of gold rush (used to be called Gold Rush country). (so not all the park or rides look like this).