On the 25th of October 2016, at the Dreamworld theme park in Australia,
a river rapids ride malfunctioned.
The failure of a water pump precipitated a deadly accident that claimed four lives in a matter of
moments - an accident which, later investigation would reveal, could have been prevented.
Dreamworld was opened in 1981 with a modest collection of attractions. These included
an IMAX theater, a model train, a log flume and a vintage car ride.
Over the decades that followed the park grew steadily, acquiring several rollercoasters,
a wildlife park, and numerous other rides. Sections of the park were developed with
different themes in mind. The Dreamworks experience zone, for example, featured several
attractions that tied in with popular Dreamworks films such as Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar.
The Town of Gold Rush zone was themed after the Australian gold rushes of the 1800s. The Thunder
River Rapids ride was one of the main attractions situated there when the zone opened in 1986.
The basic design of the ride might be familiar to any theme park enthusiast, as it resembles
hundreds of other river rapids rides around the world. Many rides of this type in other parks are
designed and built by Intamin, a well-known and reputable ride design and manufacturing company.
The river rapids ride at Dreamworld, however, was custom built by the park itself.
Riders at Dreamworld would board circular six-person rafts from a constantly rotating
station platform, which allowed easy boarding without boats having to come to a complete stop.
Once dispatched each raft would travel at a modest pace along a watercourse
that included a tunnel and several sections of simulated whitewater rapids. Boats were bumped,
jostled and splashed unpredictably as they moved along a curving channel. Part of the
fun of the ride arose from the fact that some riders would inevitably get wetter than others.
The course of the ride was on a gentle downward gradient. This was what caused the water within
the channel to flow, thus conveying the boats along without the need for an
onboard propulsion system. Naturally this meant that by the end of the ride rafts would
need to be lifted back up to the station before they could be sent around again.
At Dreamworld this was achieved by means of a conveyor belt.
Boats were guided onto it and carried upwards with guests still on board. When it reached
the top and returned to the station guests would disboard back onto the rotating station platform.
Just as the rafts needed to be lifted back up at the end of a circuit, so too
did the water - something normally achieved by two powerful water pumps.
On the 25th of October 2016 one of these pumps failed,
which caused the water level in the ride to drop significantly this resulted in a raft which had
just reached the top of the conveyor belt becoming stranded on support rails. There wasn't enough
water in the channel to carry it onwards and so it was stuck just short of the ride station.
The conveyor belt, however, continued to move, carrying up another raft.
This raft, holding six guests, collided with raft one causing both to pivot upwards.
Raft one fell back into a horizontal position, while the continued movement of the conveyor
belt forced raft two into a vertical position. Four of the occupants of raft two
were thrown out and onto the conveyor belt. The conveyor belt was, at this stage, still moving.
The victims were either dragged beneath the stranded raft and crushed, or fell through
the gaps in the belt and became trapped in the machinery beneath. All four of them were killed.
There were two survivors from raft two, both children. They were able to cling onto the raft
even in its vertical position, and later clamber to safety once the conveyor belt had stopped.
The ride was evacuated and the park closed as a recovery operation took place.
Even once all the water had been drained from the ride it took until the next morning
to retrieve the bodies. The process of doing so was so traumatic that some of
the paramedics involved required counselling once it was complete.
The park remained closed for a month, both out of respect for the dead
and to allow an investigation to be completed.
The results of this investigation would take several years to emerge,
but when they did they were damning. There had been a litany of failures on the part of the park.
Rudimentary safety features had not been implemented on the ride, even though they
would have been extremely inexpensive. There was no automatic water level indicator, for example.
No holistic risk assessment had been completed, and the task of identifying risks
was left to the staff of the ride, none of them trained engineers. Maintenance staff did not
know the location of the emergency stop button in the main control room, and never tested it.
Improvements to safety features were deferred because of budgetary concerns,
record keeping was described as shoddy, the ride was described as completely unsafe,
and it was concluded that there had been failures on the part of everybody at the park.
It is important to note that these criticisms were directed specifically
at the Dreamworld Thunder River Rapids ride.
Other rides of this type, when properly managed and risk assessed, are extremely safe for guests.
Dreamworld cooperated fully with the investigation, and when charges were finally laid
against them under the Work Health and Safety Act in July 2020 they pled guilty without hesitation.
The parent company of the theme park, Ardent Leisure, received a fine of $3.6 million,
the largest fine ever handed out for a workplace tragedy in Queensland.
The ride itself was demolished in November 2016,
and Dreamworld plans to build a memorial garden in its place. They have invited those affected by the
tragedy to be involved in its design... an offer which has angered some of the survivors' families,
as they are still awaiting actual compensation from the park.
The victims of this disaster included Kate Goodchild, who boarded the ride with her
12-year-old daughter, her brother Luke Dorsett and his partner Roozbeh Araghi.
Kate's daughter was the only one from that group to survive. Also killed was Cindy
Low. Her ten-year-old son was the only other survivor from the affected raft.
All four victims were on holiday. They had visited Dreamworld to experience its rides
and rollercoasters, fully believing that these attractions were safe. This was a reasonable
belief, as many regulatory standards exist to ensure that amusement park rides are as
safe as possible. The incident at Dreamworld which cost them their lives shows, however,
that these standards can only work when ride owners and operators actually deign to apply them.
Dreamworld overhauled its safety procedures across the park and reopened a month after the tragedy.
It has continued to operate ever since.
The site of the Thunder River Rapids ride is currently vacant.
The construction of the memorial garden is currently on hold.