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There has been a lot more moderating going on, 2 members have been suspended and we've deleted a butt ton of posts. But as you can imagine it is hard to keep up with all the replies, I would say if you see something that you find upsetting or that you take offence to, ignore it. If you do decide to respond (because I know you will anyway) at least don't call someone a shit head and make a valid point in the same post. Just makes removing the crap so much harder. Finally, don't try and solve the mystery before the police do. They've got the facts, you've got idle speculation, so perhaps give it a rest. I'll be back later to purge a lot of this thread.

1. Velcro straps are on board to promote passengers to stay seated, they are not a safety feature. You're expected to remain seated at all times as per signage plastered everywhere. If a raft were to tip last thing you want is people restrained with lapbars. 2. During a pump failure a loud alarm sounds and the operator initiates an emergency stop which will stop all pumps, conveyors and close all jacks. 3. "18 year old operator, first day on job" - Not possible, this ride required you to be a senior/experienced operator. It was one of the second last rides you were trained on last one being Log ride. It took 2 years before I was trained as an "assist". Main operator is a senior with at least 3+ years experience.

Long time viewer, rare poster here. I worked at Dreamworld for many years in operations and did in fact operate this ride. All my opinions are expressed personally and do not reflect the values or represent Dreamworld in any way today. 1. The media is enjoying the bait with this story yes but that is expected. If your wanting real facts without being superstitious you will need to wait for a full report to be released from the investigative team. 2. In my years with the company safety was incredibly important and we were pushed to write and submit reports of anything we saw or experienced that was out of the ordinary. Our training was very hands on and involved more then just checking your seatbelt and dispatching. Every morning as early as 4am an engineer would inspect a ride thoroughly and then once again before the park opened the operator and team would also do a less broad but intensive check on ride systems, gondolas, fire extinguishers, test run etc then sign the ride off/start up. Also as well as daily checks there is Annual Maintenance schedules. 3. There are modern fail-safe systems in place for human to machine related input and while I'm not an engineer I have experience in the day to day operations of the ride. As what QPS describe the raft seem to have snagged onto the raft in front and flipped back onto the conveyor system. I've never experienced such an occurrence before in my time working there, keep in mind things may have changed since then. 4. As I may have a general idea on how this could have happened I'm not willing to give my opinion until a full investigation is completed. All I can say is that when I heard about this story I was deeply shocked as I believed it was impossible for such an event to occur. My colleagues that still work for dreamworld are in complete an utter shock and could not believe that in 35 years this is the first case of death on the premises. 5. People need to realise that theme parks don't just build a ride and put people on it. There is a massive process beforehand in design, risk assessment, training, engineering, maintenance as well as consistent updates from ride manufacturers well after opening. Most rides designed these days have multiple fail safe systems that backup onto each other in certain "what if" "If this does this" scenarios. As for the age of this ride yes that is a point but it's control system has been revamped with the current only being a few years old. 6. Yes possibly operator error, maintenance, design or unruly guests on board may have caused this accident but it's the Swiss cheese effect that brings us to this outcome today, We shall see what the investigation brings. You're more likely to be in a car crash then hurt during a ride so all I can say is that this is a rare tragedy that in turn will educate and improve the industry overall. My condolences for those who were lost as well as to the operators, first responders and families affected.

Yeah, and where were they before somebody died. The park is required by law to have health and safety representatives (HSRs). If a HSR identifies a safety concern they issue a breach notice. if the park fails to rectify it they are empowered by law to issue a PIN (provisional improvement notice) which gives the park 7 days to rectify the issue or shut it down. If they still fail to do either of those things, the HSR can call in a WH&S inspector which can close down the site indefinitely. In my opinion - 'palmed off' translates to 'gave us an answer that was satisfactory under law but that we weren't happy with'.

Enough Pop, seriously, we get the idea. Meanwhile, what's happened to the ABC lately? I have always had immense respect for our public broadcaster and believe it plays a very important role in our democracy. But some of their coverage recently, particularly ABC News Online, has been no better than the Daily Mail or Daily Tele. It's all starting to seem like rushed, poorly researched, sensationalised clickbait and churnalism. The latest example is an article that refers to an 'expert' claiming that the DW incident could have been caused by "poor maintenance". But he's literally just pulled that out of the air. To give any weight to such a possibility at this point when the investigation has barely started, and for the ABC to report it, is reprehensible. It is total speculation -- entirely fact and evidence free.

@www worker 2.0 I’m starting to think you are full of shit. No manager from DW/WWW is going to go on here and tell us about seeing the footage. Only the very senior management of DW would see the footage. Why would anyone from DW go next door to WWW and say come and have a look at this. I just got a major ping on my bullshit radar.

Let's not forget that this isn't without precedent. After all, Disney killed a guy with Big Thunder a little over ten years ago in an accident that was directly attributed to poor maintenance work, yet people still line up for hours to ride it. In a world where people die in industrial accidents (and more) every day in equally tragic circumstances have we considered why this is so newsworthy? I believe it's because amusement parks have such wide appeal among the public and therefore the stories have a lot of cut-through because "it could have happened to me". There's amusement parks all over the world which makes the story locally relevant in most regions, and there's also an element of "the appeal of this is meant to be the illusion that they are dangerous, but this one actually was". With that said, I really, really wish people would stop trying to insert themselves into the narrative (eg; POP). If you didn't know those directly affected, or had no personal involvement in the incident there's little need to ramp up hyperbole about how badly affected you are, and how it's been giving you nightmares. I'm also at a loss to understand the logic behind attending vigils and tributes for people that you don't know off the back of little other than an interest in theme parks. I mean, come on - look at this objectively; how do you think somebody would feel whose loved-ones were involved if the "theme park enthusiasts" at Parkz were all over them with condolences? Literally the only thing binding you apart from humanity is an interest in the manner of their death. Sounds awful - but it's the reality of it. Pump the brakes, take a deep breath, and come back when you're no longer as emotionally invested.

Poster meant "shut up" as in "cease communicating", not "close the park"

IN RESPONSE TO @www worker 2.0 SAYING HE/SHE VIEWED CCTV FOOTAGE OF INCIDENT (I don't know how to edit and include the quote sorry) →It is in my opinion no Dreamworld worker or manager would be allowed to access or view what is essentially vital evidence from a CRIME SCENE. I agree with the above, @www worker 2.0 is a sociopath

Staff laying flowers.

Public displays of grief on boards like this are for the personal benefit of the griever, not the victims or their families. Nothing particularly wrong with that, but that's what it is.

At this point pending further investigations the ride will reopen at some point down the track, but that decision could be changed at any moment.

Tragedies happen every day, but this is something that will touch so many as we think about all the fun times we have had with our friends and family while riding the Thunder River Rapids. So many people are feeling affected by this. I feel like I have to write something. My heart goes out to all those involved.

I just can't believe this happened. I mean that 4 people who went to a park to have a fun day and now can't come home. Not to think about the other family members involved. If they had kids that now have no parents. It deeply saddens me and I am just shocked.

The park will be opening this Friday and proceeds from the day will be going to the families.

Myself, my husband and 2 friends were there the day the tourist lady and the attendant fell off the back of the chair lift. We were the next in the line to go onto the ride. No-one died this day never the less I will never forget this terrible accident. The attendant was the only staff member on duty at the time with no back up, she was a very young girl. The Tourist and her mother panicked as they were getting onto the ride. The mother managed to NOT to get onto the ride, the poor attendant was trying to tell the tourist (daughter) not panic and just sit still. She then tried to stop the chair from leaving the plat form by holding the back of the chair. Before you knew it the chair had gone off the end of the platform with the attendant hanging on the back. There was no other staff in sight or on the platform. My husband, myself and our 2 friends were the only people there at the time that could speak good English. We ran to the control panel and pressed the stop button then we got onto the phone and contacted the Dream World Staff. While I was on the phone attached to the control panel contacting staff, my husband was trying to encourage the attendant to try and lift her leg up onto the bar so she could hold on longer. We also witnessed the attendant fall the tourist lady had fainted and before you knew it she slid down under the rail and also fell to the ground. I believe there could have been a much better outcome this day if there were 2 attendants on duty and there was a reverse button on this end of the chair lift. Apparently the lift needed to be reset from the other end to enable it to reverse back wards. To this day I often wonder how these 2 ladies are and wish that we could helped out more.

That is great that DW are opening there gates again and as mentioned by @ClassifiedLlama earlier, Dreamworld have been amazing donating every dime they make on Friday to the families of the victims and working with the detectives closely to find out what happened yesterday afternoon. Even know that what ever Dreamworld do it will not change what has happened they deserve some respect for what there currently doing.

I would say it would be really poor taste. if anything they could arrange a donation for the victims, but to accept the competitors tickets is a bit much IMO.

If you had any faith left in the media before this incident, I'm sure it has evaporated now. I have never seen such desperate, click-hungry, irresponsible journalism. They are jumping at anything just to get another story up, clearly because they are attracting eyeballs. Anyone that says anything about anything slightly Dreamworld-related will get quoted in yet another baseless article on the topic. The media is stuffed (generally speaking).

Two ways to look at everything - i'm thinking of people who have come to the coast for a limited time, bought tickets to dreamworld, and now can't use them. Whilst i'm sure they'd get a refund from Dreamworld if they went through the right channels, it doesn't help then if they can't afford to buy VRTP as well whilst waiting for their refund. VRTP would benefit from in park spending, but since they are granting free admission they'd also be taking a theoretical hit too. Yes, its just as likely they'd get roasted for 'cashing in' as it is praised for 'saving family holidays' so yes, probably better to do nothing... but its just a shame.

They're saying that the forward boat was stuck because a water pump failed, lowering the water level to a point at which the boat got caught on something. For people advocating for more secure restraints - have a look at the pics of the boat after it was removed. Two of the seats have been completely shredded. I'd say that stronger restraints would have resulted in more deaths here, not less.

I share your confidence Slick, but in terms of them 'focusing on load' - there should be an operator, at the panel, watching the surveillance monitors. Wonderland had a camera on the conveyor... so if this applies to Dreamworld - then we're talking less than 5 seconds from 'start to tip' to total shutdown.

What about those restraints, there's a B & M hyper out there missing it's clamshell restraints lol. I haven't gone through the whole thread to see if it's been mentioned before, but the ops having to buckle up every seat belt isn't conducive to fast loads (I understand why, but maybe the restraint could have been a bit better designed).

Logical conclusion from the images we have seen i guess....Maybe there is a half decent journo out there!

^I second this. As enthusiasts we know that for instance Superman can operate with 2 trains. And on days when they only run 1 train, the line can get to 40mins - 1 hr long.....it's very annoying.

When there is a huge line of people waiting and the total ride capacity is not usable, it comes across as a poor design to me. Buzzsaw is the same when there's only one operator. They have to leave two seats free so the operator can cross over, surely that could have been incorporated into the design. I just get annoyed when I'm waiting and rides aren't being used to capacity.

Some fairly ambiguous, sensationalistic statements in that article.

i'm of the same opinion skeet, but i am mindful of the fact that: senior management probably dont access the cctv footage on a regular basis, and may require a junior manager who utilises it on a regular basis to access the system on their behalf in order to assist police with their enquiries WWW Worker has been on the boards for some time, and given what we know lately about the park appearing to 'absorb' WWW as part of DW, its always possible that 'WWW Worker' is a manager who crosses the boundary - perhaps even moving over the DW in the off peak its also possible the name is no longer accurate for the reasons mentioned above.

I've been lucky in that all my interactions with the GP this morning have been quite rational. No ones called for Dreamworld's closure, or lectured about how theme park rides are evil. Most have been explaining to me how Thunder River Rapids was their childhood favourite.

This is the beauty of coasters. There's no set of criteria that can really tell you what makes coasters better than others, it's all about what they make you feel. If I'm in the mood for flying I'll ride a B&M winged, if I'm in the mood to go fast I'll ride an Intamin accelerator, if I want to go down massive drops and soar over huge airtime hills I'll ride a hyper of some sort, if I want to disorient myself and experience something a bit crazy I'll ride something with lots of inversions. The possibilities are really endless, and it explains why even amongst people who have ridden the same coasters they'll place them all in a different order. Personally I find it so hard to order mine, every ride usually offers something different to another one in the same park. Kinda like cars for me, you can only properly compare a coaster with another coaster that's designed to do the same thing. You don't compare a Nissan Pulsar with a Lamborghini for example, just like you don't compare a B&M Hyper with a Vekoma SLC. However, just like you can compare a Pulsar with a Mazda 323, you can compare different coasters that are trying to do the same thing, like B&M Inverts and Vekoma SLCs, there's even argument to be made that these coasters are offering different experiences.

This has really shocked me. I’ve been going to Dreamworld since the mid-eighties when I was around 10 years old up to now with my kids. It’s always been a place where I/we can go and just have some fun, a world away from the world. This unfortunate tragedy is of a global scale. I can’t recall (in recent times) any theme park accidents anywhere in the world that have resulted in the death of multiple people. One death is terrible but four is unimaginable, especially so close to home and especially to a park with, as far as I know, a very good safety record. This will go down in theme park history, a part of the history books you don’t want to be in. While it will take some time for official causes to be determined, I truly hope that it wasn’t human error either on the part of operators/maintenance/ or other park staff. It’s bad enough the victims’ families having to deal with the loss of loved ones let alone employee’s being found guilty of misconduct and potentially face criminal charges along with the guilt they’ll have to live with if convicted. As for the future of Dreamworld – who knows? I can’t imagine a park of that size and scale will just close up shop but they definitely have a very difficult time ahead of them. And finally, I’d like to pay my respects to those who died, the families left without loved ones, and park patrons, staff and emergency workers who witnessed this tragic event. I meant to add, the treatment of this event by most media outlets is nothing short of disgusting.

For anyone who has not yet seen it there was a media release update this morning by QLD Police. They state that they have not released names and will not do so at this stage.

As a cameraman I've seen more than enough tragedy in my life, this has floored me. No sleep at all last night and seeing that horrible front page picture in the Courier Mail on arrival at work at 3am this morning broke me. I hate to say my work has hardened me a little over the years, but this...this is...what the hell do you say? A lot of people here are calling the media vultures and they're right in saying so. Just remember it's the bosses calling the shots, not the 'lowly' camera operators, etc. They are affected to no ends by tragedies like this. We find ourselves in situations where we are thrown into the chaos as 1st-on-scene in a lot of tragic circumstances and affects us for the rest of our lives. This is in no way excusing the disgusting way the media are 'reporting' on this, just providing some insight into those who are thrust into horrible things like this just because it's our job. The 1st call I got was a report that a carriage on Buzzsaw collided with 'something' on the track. When I got there and realised what happened I turned around and went home, something I can do now that I am freelance. I think the Courier Mail and Gold Coast Bulletin in particular should be ashamed of themselves publishing the photos of those victims caught up in the rides. Will Parkz be organising a tribute at Dreamworld at all? We are a community on here and as a community I would like to get together to pay our respects and express our sorrow while being mindful of those involved. Let's never forget them

Same still in shock

I understand your stance reanimated, to each their own when it comes to safety personally, whilst I've jumped back on GL (I gave it a few months of safe operation before i did), I don't think I could bring myself to ride TRR again IF it did re-open. Not knowing 4 people had perished in that same location. Maybe that's the shock speaking and it may soften over time, but given I've been putting my 4 year old on that ride since he turned 2, I can't shake the dread I feel just thinking about it. (My partner has already banned me from putting him on rides for the foreseeable future after today - again, everyone has a right to choose their reactions)

I would ride it. I've ridden Green Lantern, Rocky Hollow, Colossus, Goliath, Ninja, Scream, California Screamin', Indiana Jones, It's a small world, Matterhorn, Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin. I want to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad & Smiler. There's a certain level of danger you accept with these things. It's not likely, but it's a possibility.

Looks like the rafts were fabricated and built in Australia http://www.masterglass.com.au/project/theme-parks/

I'm particularly upset about them playing the blame game at Dreamworld and even the other parks. Claiming that all the rides there are unsafe, and the RHLR incident was somehow related. Some even managed to weave in the Storm Coaster stall a couple weeks back. What people don't seem to realise is that people, real people, were working at the rapids when this happened, and I'm sure they are just as deeply upset as anyone.

you can see it explained better in this article

Someone on reddit said that his friend works at DW and that there is a belief that the rope that circles the upper part of the rubber came off and got caught in the belt. Some of the photos suggest that the rope has come off so maybe? https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/599i7f/at_least_four_people_killed_in_horror_dreamworld/d96soha/

An honorable and respectful decision for which I applaud them for. No doubt a less scrupulous operator could have simply fenced off the attraction and gone about their business. I look forward to seeing them reopen soon. Its going to be a long road to recovery. For everyone who has been affected by this - including the ride operators - whom I hope are receiving extra support from the park...

My little girl inadvertently saw this on the news, I try my hardest to keep her from watching the news, and now she is on the verandah blowing kisses toward Dreamworld. "Is God sad Daddy?" I don't cry very much at all. I just held her and let the tears fall.

Severely sad this is. Just to think about everyone involved and their families and the distress and guilt ride operators and mechanics would feel. Just hearing this is very sad. For The family and friends of the involved guests i extend my deepest sympathies. Just to think they may have been looking forward to a great day out at dw, to only have it cut way too short. Unaware of any possible dangers. RIP

R.I.P I hope the families associated have the best of luck as they go through this tough time. This is a very serious tragedy and is nothing to be joked about. I will keep the families in my prayers.

Personally I would be very surprised to see the ride ever re open. Whilst popular it is also an aging ride that is very expensive to run and this tragic incident has probably sealed its fate. Other rides have killed people and reopened yes, but with far for reason to than TRRR has. Coukd be an end to that entire area of the park with the idea of putting the tragedy behind them. In this time though, regardless of if it was your favourite ride, or how sad YOU might be, four people lost their lives today and it would be a horrific time for anyone who knew them or was involved. Perspective is important.

It makes it seem substantially more worse now how the media jump on every small theme park incident looking for a story, for example, a mid-ride stoppage and evacuation on Storm - and as it's mentioned here "everything was working as is should be", and now these non-events are being used against the safety of the parks. Edited, as I also offer my condolences to friends and family members of those involved, and the staff and general public that witnessed the tragic event.

Are you drinking beer tonight?

Absolutely agree. I've won things on the radio before, and then realised afterwards that I couldn't go \ had other plans, and subsequently arranged to either: relinquish them so the station could re-give them, or given them away to friends \ family online on a first-come basis. Selling them is immoral. It didn't cost you anything, why should you profit from it? I'd fully support the park trying to identify the seller (or the buyer) and cancelling the tickets or invalidating them in some way.

People like that shit me. Why call in and try win a prize you don't want just so you can sell it. Takes away from someone who may have truly loved it but couldn't afford to buy tickets from winning.

Yes he did. He became the immediate past president of the being alive club. But I read the report and doesn't it say that was the most likely reason, but they were not able to confirm it with certainty? (Admittedly I did read it late at night though so I might be wrong)