Leaderboard

Volcano Beach - Construction Update - 7/10/2018 I had a chance to visit the park over the weekend, and take some construction pictures of the new Volcano Beach wave pool. It was an absolute stunner of a day; beautiful 27 degree sunny day. Crowds were light, but more than I was expecting for the 2nd Sunday of the 2018/19 season. The grounds and gardens were in great condition; as always. The wave pool is bigger than I expected. It's a big attraction for the park that will definitely be a hit. It''ll give guests an alternative 'home base' for their day; other than the shelter/bbq area and kids water playground. I'm glad a compromise was found to keep the Go Karts. It's still a very popular attraction for families. The shorter course doesn't take anything away from the experience IMO. But I really would love to see some more theming around the track. There is a lot of work still to do. But knowing the Funfields team, they will have it completed by December as advertised. Also, expect some high quality rockwork all around the Volcano Beach area. FF are using the same team who did the Voodoo rockwork.

Parking was a nightmare on the coast so I got here a little late. It seems I didn’t miss much though. Stephen Buss Began at Dreamworld in 2006 as a ride operator, was terminated in 2014 after an incident where he stopped the thunder river rapids ride which caused two rafts to collide. Mr Buss wasn’t involved in the Dreamworld operations team. Mr Buss states that he personally didn’t find pressing 4 buttons to shut down the ride, difficult. It may have been difficult but he didn’t have any issues. During an interview with WHS, Mr Buss states that a single e-stop would be helpful but the ride needs to be completely restarted for a number of reasons which is why there were 4 different buttons. TRR would generally only run with 3 operators if it was during peak period. Outside of that, it was 2 operators that would run it. Mr Buss states that always having a 3rd person (deckhand) would be of an advantage because it would make the number 1 operators job easier as the deckhand generally takes some of the responsibilities off the number 1 operator. Mr Buss doesn’t believe the rides were ever under staffed, he only issues were during holidays where the park was busier than usual. Mr Buss noticed on many occasions that the the personal culture was very good and that the trainers would regularly check up on operators to see how they are doing. Mr Buss mentioned in his WHS interview that he can’t understand how the 2016 incident happened as it’s drilled into operators to stop the ride if anything happens. Me Buss states that if you failed any emergency shut down procedure, you would be taken off the ride and retrained before you can operate it again. When asked what button Mr Buss would press first in a situation like this and his answer was “the conveyor e-stop” “the conveyor stop is the primary button they drill into you” Me Buss states that the unload operators were given instructions to use the conveyor e-stop if they noticed anything wrong but he personally never used it. Mr Buss states that stopping the conveyor is fundamental training. Mr Buss isn’t happy with the decision to terminate his contract but he accepted it as he couldn’t fight it. Mr Buss has been the level 1 operator on many occasions and stopped the conveyor on many occasions. When asked if Mr Buss ever had any problems using it, he replied “no”. Mr Buss also agreed that it can be confusing in a panic situation. Mr Buss never had any discussions about the issues with the conveyor and rafts after his incident as it was never fathomed that such an incident could occur. Mr Buss believed the training provided for rapids was great. His incident and termination was due to him restarting the conveyor while there were still guests at the bottom near the reservoir, not because the rafts bumped into eachother on the top of the conveyor. Mr Buss states that there was never emergency drills. The training auditors would sometimes quickly yell out an issue to the operators just to see what their reaction would be. But that was the closest to an emergency drill that Mr Buss has ever been to participating in at Dreamworld. Mr Buss states that operators generally aren’t stressed when a code 6 is called because it is a common occurrence. When Mr Buss saw the incident on TV, the first thing he thought was “why didn’t they stop the conveyor, they just needed to stop the conveyor” Mr Buss had previously been told that if rafts collided around the course of the ride, there was a risk of “capsizing” Mr Buss was never aware of any previous incidents on TRR. Mr Buss has just finished giving evidence. John Clark Employed at DW 3 years before the incident as a safety officer. Prior to working at Dreamworld, Mr Clark worked for Queensland Ambulance as an advanced paramedic level 2. This permits Mr Clark to administer IV drugs and declare life extinct, along with other advanced patient care. Mr Clark states that he has been a paramedic for 22 years and was a first aid officer at Dreamworld. Mr Clark mostly organised safety meetings and hadn’t spent much time in the safety officer role. Mr Clark never performed risk assessments. Mr Clark was asked if 2 first aid officers onsite is adequate and his response was “it has been in the past, it’s never an issue unless there is an emergency” Mr Clark was based in the gold rush first aid office. He was called to a code 222 blue at rapids and began to head there. Upon arrival Mr Clark recalls the first thing he spotted was one of the rafts in an upright position, 90 degrees to its normal position. Mr Clark advises the ride was still running when he was arriving at the ride. Mr Clark then provided a ride operator with a lockout tag to put on the control panel. Mr Clark was asked if he had everything he needed in an emergency. Mr Clark states that he would always pack the first aid bags with as much that he could realistically fit and use. Mr Clark cannot think of any piece of equipment that would have made his job easier from a professional paramedic standpoint.

Hey guys, I left the court during lunch as the aircon wasn't working and it's expected that Mr Green will take up the rest of the afternoon. A lot of the conversations and questions with Mr Green are just a rehash of what was said earlier by Mr Clark so I took the opportunity to leave. I do still have someone at the hearing so I'll provide any major updates if anything new or big gets said.

Shane Green First Aid Manager Was trained as a paramedic in 2006 and has been since then. Has been employed at Dreamworld since 2013. Mr Green is based in the White Water World first aid clinic and states it took around 3-5 minutes to make it to rapids after the call was made. Once Mr Green arrived onsite, he administered aid for as long as he could. Mr Green stated that there would always be 2 first aid officers on so there could be one based in each clinic. White Water World Lifeguards are also called upon to assist with first aid when required. When Mr Green for arrived at Dreamworld, he believed the medical equipment was seriously lacking but was provided with the correct equipment once he requested it. Mr Green doesn’t believe there was any medical equipment or leading surgeons in the world that would be able to assist or save the lives of the victims. When asked if Mr Green believes equipment could be provided to assist in getting people out of the Thunder River Rapids troughs, he responded that it is difficult because every situation is different. Mr Green also stated that the troughs are impossible to navigate due to slime buildup underwater so he was slipping and falling over while trying to help. Mr Green doesn’t recall the rapid ride alarm sounding, he only remembers hearing a “Code 222 blue” call. Mr Green was asked if he can think of any ways that this whole situation could have been improved. He responded saying no, in this particular case, there is very little more that we could have done. When asked if everything was adequate to deal with that situation, Mr Green advised that it was but there was nothing more that could be done. We have just adjourned for lunch

Mr Clark states there are times where the First Aid clinic is unattended because both the first aid officers are in the park attending with medical issues. Mr Clark was only aware of 2-3 patients when he arrived onsite but then realised there was also another patient. Mr Clark stayed at Dreamworld for about a year after the incident before leaving the company. Mr Clark stated that many things changed after the incident including more staff being hired and policies being changed. Mr Clark doesn’t believe there was ever an emergency drill practiced on a ride. It was all computer learning and talking about an emergency drill situation. Mr Clark mentioned that you can never debrief enough after an emergency situation. When Mr Clark arrived at the ride, he doesn’t recall seeing anyone underwater. Mr Clark believed the First Aid Clinic was adequately stocked and prepared to deal with a medical situation including 4 beds. The primary First Aid Clinic is based in White Water World. When Mr Clark arrived at the ride, he didn’t talk with the ride operator, just handed them a lockout tag and requested more staff before saying “I’m going in the water”. By the time Mr Clark got into the water, it was still at chest height. There was a member of the public performing CPR on a woman and Mr Clark requested 3 ambulances attend. Mr Clark’s main priority was to get the guests out of the water as nothing can be done to help in the water. Mr Clark brought a defibrillator with him to the scene. Mr Clark has just finished giving evidence.

Also, the same as last time, here is each day compiled and neatened up a bit and in one google doc instead of 14 different posts. Heres yesterday: https://tinyurl.com/Monday-inquest And here's today: https://tinyurl.com/Tuesday-inquest

Mr Clark later clarified that the conveyor was stopped when he arrived at the unload platform to jump in. He was one of the first people onsite as he was in the gold rush first aid clinic so the distance from there, down the fastpass line striaght to the unload platform is pretty quick. It isn’t clear whether the pump was still running when he jumped in but I’d say it was still in the process of draining because he wasn’t in the main trough, he was in the water area near the conveyor and station turntable. The water was so dirty from the nature of the incident and the natural dirtiness of the water since it isn’t exactly cleaned. I believe the 4th person was trapped under something which is why it was harder to notice in all the panic and until the water was fairly low. I can explain this in a lot more detail but I’d rather not in a public forum as those details are the ones covered by the NPO. Happy to privately gore with you though @joz

Further update: When Mr Clark and Mr Green arrived at the scene and were administering first aid, they were only aware of 3 patients. There was still a 4th underwater that wasn't revealed until the water levels had completely dropped. CPR was being performed on one female patient on the unload platform by Mr Clark, two males were in the water around the conveyor area and were unable to be helped and the 4th person was trapped underwater and discovered once the water had drained from the station. Mr Clark mentioned many times that the water was very murky and that he couldn't see the bottom of the troughs. Mr Green had also mentioned many times about the slime on the troughs that made it impossible to stand or walk on without slipping. Also, I'd like to add that Mr Clark and Mr Green are both trained paramedics so they are coping extremely well given what they have witnessed and were involved in. Also todays google doc link: https://tinyurl.com/Wednesday-inquest

Haven't hit Paris yet, but I can answer some of your Fastpass question (and so can the website) Each eligible attraction on the fastpass list has a section near the ride where the fastpass machines are located. They sort of look a bit like a parking lot ticket machine (dispenser \ collector, not the pay machine). The machine has two slots - one for your entry ticket, and one to dispense the fastpass. The machines will only issue you with one fastpass every two hours (or once your previous fastpass has expired, whichever comes first), so its important to maximise this time by timing yourself to be in the area to get your next fastpass as soon as you're able to. So a couple practical examples to make sense of this - You enter WDS park at open, and proceed to Tower of Terror, to obtain a fastpass. Its 10am, and the fastpass is for 12-12:30pm. You then go immediately to Rock'N'Rollercoaster, where as it's right at the back of the park in Backlot, there are less crowds, and you don't queue for too long - possibly even squeezing in more than one ride before the queue blows out. It's now almost 11, and you have an hour to kill before your Tower fastpass, so you work your way back through Backlot and production courtyard. Since you want to do Ratatouille, work your way across the park to Toon Studio, stopping and doing things you want to do as you go, whilst keeping an eye on the time (and not riding standby lines if the queue is longer than the time to your next fastpass window), with an aim to get to Ratatouille by 12. Since it's now 2 hours since you got your last fastpass, you can now get one for Ratatouille, so you scan your ticket, get your fastpass, which says 12:45-1:15pm. You head back to tower, walk straight on and your ride is done. It's 12:30, so only 15 minutes until Ratatouille opens. You can't get another fastpass, since its within 2 hours, and the fastpass window hasn't expired yet, so you work your way back to Ratatouille, use your fastpass, and then since your fastpass has been used, you can now get another one. I've used WDS as its an easier \ less complex example with a straight forward park layout and only 3 attractions on the list. DLP has 6 attractions on the system, but obviously some are better than others. Consider what your must-do's are, what will be popular and have long lines, and try to plan your fastpass windows around being near those rides when your window opens. There are definitely strategies to maximising the fastpass, and among many others that includes things like squeezing in a big popular ride early when the queue is short, rather than wasting a fastpass window on something with a short line. This served us well on my last LA trip, but be careful you don't spend half your time chasing fastpasses from one side of the park to the other. The Disneyland parks all have a circular flow and it's easy to work your way from one side to the other without missing out too much. If you continuously run from one end of the park to the other you'll lose a lot of time that the fastpass doesn't always make back for you. It can be helpful though to give all the tickets to one person, and get them to run on ahead to obtain the fastpass, whilst the others take their time moving to the next ride or attraction - a good opportunity for toilet stops, grabbing a bite to eat or a drink - and you can work it well where one person queues for lunch and finds a table while the other runs off for the next fastpass. Enjoy - Paris is definitely on my bucket list!

Well, 1 is higher than 0. Dreamworld seem to have 0 maintenance team.

Nearly the whole day? Bloody hell, that's got to be at least three, maybe four cycles?

The CCTV from the 2014 incident was shown again and this is the first time Mr Buss has ever seen it. A raft stops at the end of the conveyor, the conveyor is still moving and another raft comes down and bumps into it 4-5 times before the conveyor is stopped. Mr Buss cannot remember turning off the conveyor but states that if rafts were touching, he would have shut off the conveyor to prevent any issues. A few weeks after the incident, Mr Buss was interviewed and suspended without pay before being terminated. Mr Buss recalls the low air alarm being an audible alarm and a flashing light on the control panel. Mr Buss states that there is definitely a flashing light on the control panel for a pump failure alarm but cannot recall if there is an audible alarm. At the time of the incident, Mr Buss was one of the most senior ride operators at Dreamworld Mr Buss was shown a picture of the control panel and asked if it is the same as when he was operating the ride. Mr Buss states the only two new things added are a lockout device and a conveyor reset button. Mr Buss states that there are 2 conveyor stop buttons. A soft stop and an instant stop. The soft stop is generally issued for issues where the whole ride doesn’t need to be shut down. We have just been adjourned for today. Thank you for tuning in, I shall pick this back up tomorrow.

Stephen Buss Began at Dreamworld in 2006, was terminated in 2014 after an incident where he stopped the thunder river rapids ride which caused two rafts to collide. Mr Buss states that he was trained as a level 3 operator for every ride and was trained in every position on thunder river rapids. Mr Buss was fully trained on all roles on TRR in March 2008. Mr Buss states that training for the log ride and TRR was over 2 days where all other rides had a 1 day training. The trainer would shadow the trainee for the entire time they are training. Me Buss confirmed that trainers wouldn’t leave until they were confident that the trainee knew what they were doing. Mr Buss states that the level 3 operator is often quite busy due to a lot of multitasking that was required. Mr Buss was asked if it was a lot to deal with and if it was difficult, he stated that it got easier with more experience. The level 3 operator is in charge of monitoring every aspect of the ride from load and dispatch, queues, water levels, stuck rafts and even removing rubbish from recently emptied rafts. During training for the level 3 role, it’s generally not taught to be watching the conveyor and the spacing of the rafts as it’s already learned in the level 1 and 2 roles. Mr Buss was advised that during his time there, he was advised about maintaining the spacing between the rafts as that was one of the major things that needed to be monitored as he had heard stories before of a raft flipping but can’t remember where he heard this. Mr Buss states that Dreamworld management would drill into trainees that the spacing of the rafts is the most important thing to monitor on TRR. Mr Buss states that during his time there, staff would constantly be quizzed by management and trainers on safety procedures and other aspects of the rides they would look after. Mr Buss states that if there is an operational change to the ride, all staff must be signed off to say they have been trained in the new process. If a staff member got questions wrong during the quizzes, they would be taken off the ride and retrained. Mr Buss mentioned that the quizzes would occur a few times a year. Mr Buss was asked about alarms from the ride. The only alarm was the low pressure alarm which means a pump has stopped. The alarm is in place because the first raft in line needs to be tethered to the station so that it can’t float away as it is past the raft jacks in the station. Mr Buss states that the saying was “when in doubt, just stop the ride. When clarifying this, Me Buss stated that when that happened, you would shut off the conveyor as the e-stop only turns off the pumps and that would be no help. Mr Buss can never recall a time that he or another staff member have ever pressed the e-stop button on the unload platform. That button shuts off the conveyor and a pump. In the event of a low air alarm, all the jacks would automatically lower to allow all the rafts to come home. Mr Buss states there was a low air alarm, so he anchored the first raft in the station so it doesn’t float away. He didn’t realise there were 3 other rafts still in the course when he turned off the conveyor. For a bit of clarification, there were 2 alarms, a low air alarm and a pump failure alarm. During this incident, it was a low air pressure alarm. Which is a different process to a pump failure. During a pump failure, the process is to shut off the conveyor. During a low air alarm, the process is to anchor the first raft and then let all other rafts return home. Mr Buss states that he got confused as the low air alarm had fixed itself and forgot there were 3 rafts still on the course when he accidentally shut off the pump which caused a raft to bottom out at the end of the conveyor. Mr Buss didn’t notice that one had bottomed out at the start of the conveyor when he restarted the conveyor which caused the second raft to collide with the first one when it came over the conveyor. Mr Buss continued to operate the ride for the rest of the day and wasn’t even aware there would be an investigation into it until 1-2 weeks after.

As far as I’m aware (not having done Haunted Mansion), they are very similar rides. I believe Phantom Manor is undergoing a big refurbishment at the moment so you might miss out unfortunately. Crush’s coaster is an indoor spinning coaster. Sorta like Scooby Doo in a way - a slow themed section and then a roller coaster section with less theming - of course this is spinning and themed to finding Nemo. I was keen on doing the backlot tour when I went but it was closed so I can’t comment on that. From what I’ve seen online it’s got a couple of cool elements but is nothing close to Universal’s tram tour.

Thanks @Glubbo for that overal day trip report. Is the Phantom Manor like Haunted Mansion or something completely different?

We went in July 2013 (so before Ratatouille), and it's been our only Disney Park to date. We took the train from Paris and only had time for a one day visit. We weren't as prepared as the advice you've been given above, but did grab a few fast passes and wandered around a lot, knowing the Park hours were very long in the middle of summer. Mrs and son (10 at the time) aren't coaster people, so this was more of a balanced family visit as opposed to adults wanting to tick off the bucket list thrill rides. We lined up at the security screening point before general public opening. We went straight to DLP, then scooted to Discoveryland, grabbing Fastpasses on Buzz Lightyear. First was Star Tours (20 mins wait). I then went on Hyperspace Mountain (single rider). We walked through Nautilis (take an extra moment in each room to see the story with the squid). We used our fastpass on Buzz Lightyear (shooting dark ride), then ate in that area of the park (Hyperion, as it had a show on while we ate). We then wandered through the castle and into Fantasyland. They did Dumbo & Carousel. Peter Pan had a long wait so we went into Adventureland. We wandered through Pirates Beach, Adventure Isle (such attention to detail! Yeah I know, Disney) and a 30-45 minute wait for Pirates of the Caribbean. Our plan was to do WDS before dinner then return to DLP for more atractions and the fireworks. We made our way back to the front of the park through Frontierland. My main regret is not passing Thunder Mountain early enough in the day, I think all the fastpasses were gone by then. Lines were well over an hour. I took my kid on Phantom Manor (45 minute wait but really worth it). We entered WDS and split up. I went on Rock n Roller Coaster (15 mins), they did Art of Disney. We met at Armageddon (Walk-in so we did it), and they piked on Tower. Crush's was under maintenance (Ratatouille wasn't to open until the next year). We did some shopping in there as well. I'm sure we did more in WDS, but it escapes me at the moment (we missed the last Tram Tour of the day by a minute.) We had dinner at Earl of Sandwich in Disney Village, but seriously most places looked pretty good. Remember this was summer, so there was plenty of daylight hours to go. @themagician I'd suggest eating on the go during the day. Sit down brekky before Park opening sounds like a good idea. Back into DLP we returned to Frontierland, and again Thunder Mountain had over an hour wait. We continued back into Adventureland, and again split up. I did Indiana Jones et le Tempe du Peril, Wife and Son Robinson Tree house. We passed back into Fantasyland via the Castle, ensuring we visited the Dragon. This part of the day was for the family, so they wandered Alice's Labyrinth before dragging me onto It's a Small World. It was twilight by this time (after 9:30pm), with the fireworks not due to occur until about 11:00 iirc. We slowly made our way back past the Castle and Main Street, and jumped on the Train back to Paris. This skims over a lot of things we stopped and looked at passing through and between Lands, including shops, snacks, meeting characters and the like. As @Santa07says, be prepared for your plan to be thrown out the window. But make one or two nonetheless. It was an amazing day for us, including having a drama on the trains (we had to change lines on the way back, and found nowhere to insert our Metro tickets leading to the conductor/ticket inspector almost having a go at us until she realised we didn't speak enough French to explain ourselves) and at our end station, emerging from the Metro at Republique into a concert played by Bastille (singing Pompeii at the time!).

Any indication of at what point the pumps were turned off and how long it takes for water to drain from that area? Seems extraordinary that 5 mins after it happened the water level hadn't dropped enough to find everyone.

I visited DLP in December last year. When I went I did the main park before Walt Disney Studios park, even though the common advice is to do WDS first (mostly due to the wait times Crush's Coaster and Ratatouille end up with). The reason why I chose to do the main park first is because I wanted to experience the true Disney charm before heading over to the less-atmospheric park (DLP was also my first Disney park). The order you do it in is up to you, both parks have rides that need to get done early to avoid long waits. I'll run over the two parks and give my opinion on what needs to be prioritised. Over in the main park, Big Thunder Mountain either needs to be done first, or with a fastpass. When I went it was the longest wait in this park, and I believe this is often the case. Other rides you should aim to prioritise or get a FP for are Star Tours and Hyperspace Mountain (although when I went they had both recently come out of a refurbishment, so they might be less popular now). Other tips: Pirates is a fantastic ride, but is very high capacity so you don't have to worry about getting this one done early (make sure you do get it done sometime during the day though!) Leave Indiana Jones unless you really want the credit, it's a horrible ride Don't forget about the smaller attractions you might otherwise forget about! This is the only Disney park with a dragon under the castle, so make sure you take the time to see it, it's truly magical. The Nautilus is a cool little walkthrough you should make time to experience as well. Then we have the other side... Walt Disney Studios. Try not to spend more than a couple of hours here - while it does have some great rides, the main park is still far superior - Walt Disney Studios just doesn't have the Disney atmosphere that the main park has. The two rides you should prioritize here are Ratatouille and Crush's Coaster. Crush's Coaster should be the first ride you get done here - it's very low capacity (for a Disney ride) and has no fastpass system. There is a single rider queue which I would highly recommend if you end up at the end of a 90 minute queue (which is certainly possible for this ride, even on low crowd days). Ratatouille is higher capacity but is very popular, so either get a FP or utilise the single rider line for this one. ToT and RnRC are your other priorities for this park, although shouldn't be as high as the other two (since Ratatouille and Crush's Coaster are unique to this park, at least for now). When I went RnRC was basically a walk-on, so don't worry about getting this one done before the crowds grow. ToT may have a bit of a queue, although it shouldn't be anything near as long as Ratatouille or CC. Some general tips: You're not going to get everything done in one day - I certainly had a lot more I wanted to do when I went but didn't get time. Make a plan for the day with what you want to get done (also be prepared for the plan to get thrown out the window within the first hour of your day). December weather in Paris is often pretty miserable - it will be freezing cold and possibly raining (if you're really lucky you might get snow, but rain is much more common in December). Be prepared for the outdoor rides to be closed if the weather isn't too good (luckily most of the rides are indoors). If you haven't already done so make sure you allocate a couple of days to seeing Paris itself - it's one of my favourite cities that I've been to and deserves a couple of days for sightseeing (I could easily spend a week there without getting bored though). Feel free to ask if you have any other questions about the two parks. I loved DLP when I went, so I hope you feel the same way!

Head to Studios first. Grab a fast pass for Ratatouille during the early hours then line up for Crush’s Coaster. Standby queues for Tower and Rock’n are usually pretty quick. Once in Disneyland Park grab your fast pass for Big Thunder (best version in the world IMO) then go ride Space Mountain as long as standby isn’t too long. Most everything else has reasonable lines. Earl of Sandwich is my pick for breakfast at Disney Village, or McDonalds has some tasty options. Make sure you’re in Disneyland park for the castle projection/fireworks show too!

In about 5 months time, @Bussy will log in and answer that question, but I think no.

It does indeed seem to be the type of logic one might expect from somebody who had yet to start going to school.

Nigel Irwin Senior security control room operator Was a part time junior manager during the time of the incident. Mr Irwin is in charge of the security and communications control room. When a ride operator calls for assistance, it goes to the control room to be triaged out to the correct person. Mr Irwin also views the CCTV monitors. Mr Irwin is the staff member who contacted emergency services when the incident occurred. Mr Irwin received a call from the ride operators that a pump had shut down and he looked at the CCTV and confirmed that the south pump had failed. Mr Irwin recalled radio chatter between maintenance guys about a fault with the pump. The issue was then rectified and the ride was reopened. Mr Irwin states that it was a quiet day until the incident. Mr Irwin received at call at 2:06pm to call a code 222 blue which is a medical emergency. Mr Irwin asked for more details but the operator only stated that “I’ve got a raft on the conveyor” Mr Irwin wasn’t sure of the nature of the incident so he checked the CCTV and saw a raft on its side in the air and upgraded the call to a code 222 grey which is a medical emergency involving machinery. At the time, Mr Irwin observed that there was a raft at the end of the conveyor but no guests inside. The conveyor and pumps were stopped and the rapids alarm wasn’t sounding. Mr Irwin states that when first aid arrived onsite, they requested he call Queendland Ambulance. Mr Irwin then went over the radio to upgrade the call to a code 222 emergency which is the highest response level. During Mr Irwin’s call to Queensland ambulance, he states “we’ve had a mechanical failure on our rover rapids, we have somebody trapped in the machinery and after being told an ambulance is on its way, his response was “we may need more” Queensland Police came to view the footage in the control room and Mr Irwin had to view the CCTV footage over and over so many times as he needed to show ever new officer that arrived. Mr Irwin states that this was greatly distressing. Mr Irwin was asked if there were any improvements that he could think of to this process. “I think there should be an alarm for every ride and every issue so people know exactly what the issue is. The park also doesn’t have a PA system which would be helpful” Mr Irwin replied. Mr Irwin was asked if there was any difficulty or impairment in emergency personal accessing the site, to which he replied “no”. Senior management has their own radio channel to discuss situations like that. Mr Irwin filled in as the duty manager from time to time and they would report to the Operations manager. His role was primarily security duty manager. Mr Irwin would often work split shifts where he is in the control room half the day and a duty manager for the other half. This is due to the duty manager being at an advantage if he can view the CCTV monitors. Mr Irwin was asked about his training which was primarily done through shadowing with an experienced staff member. Mr Irwin also had additional training from the person who has the role before him. The Control room operator is generally hired from the pool of security staff that are excelling in their role and not hired without security experience. Mr Irwin claims responsibility for almost entirely eliminating bag theft within White Water World. Mr Irwin was also in charge of the control room on the day of the log ride incident. Where he said he learned a lot about how to react in an emergency situation. Mr Irwin states that the log ride and TRR emergencies both went smoothly, but unfortunately there was nothing that could be done for the victims when staff arrived. Mr Irwin states that he doesn’t recall a debrief for staff in the days/weeks after the event. He did have RDO’s during this period but was still not aware of any briefs that happened with staff. Mr Irwin is currently not working at Dreamworld as he is suffering from PTSD and has been since May 2017. Mr Irwin was not aware of any previous incidents on TRR or that there was any potential for rafts to flip. There are 2 main park wide alarms, the rapids alarm and the animal escape alarm. Mr Irwin was under the impression that the river rapids alarm was due to it being such a large unmonitored ride, not because there was such catastrophic potential. Emergency training has been implemented for staff post incident. Mr Irwin has mentioned that he would often receive calls that were not urgent as junior staff weren’t sure how to react in an emergency situation and he just needed to calm them down and inform them of the correct procedure. Mr Irwin states that the only emergency drill that he has ever undertaken in the park, was a bomb threat drill. Not a ride evacuation or any other emergency situation. Mr Irwin doesn’t believe there was any delay between contact from the ride op and contact of emergency services, he states that it would have been “3-4 seconds”. Mr Irwin was never provided with any reason as to why a code 6 breakdown folder was kept. Mr Irwin believes this folder was copied by Queensland police when they were gathering evidence. Each folder covers a full calendar year and then gets archived after the year is complete. Mr Irwin doesn’t believe the process of getting in contact with the control room could have been done any quicker. The only notification Mr Irwin got was the ride operator calling and saying “code 222 blue, I’ve got a raft on the conveyor” and then hung up. Mr Irwin then Checked the cctv monitors and upgrades the call when he say the raft sideways. Mr Irwin has just finished giving evidence.

It was briefly mentioned this morning that the staff will be perusing civil action but the front page of the courier mail today is the first time that the assisting legal team was made aware of it. Mr Cruz only accessed TRR documents stored on DW hard drives after the incident in 2016. Prior to this, those documents couldn’t be located. Mr Cruz has just finished giving evidence

Mr Cruz cannot remember viewing any urgent safety alerts from any ride manufactures in regards to updates or problems with the rides. Mr Cruz will take onboard all of the recommendations from the manufacturer including to shut the ride down if required. Mr Cruz was asked if part of his qualifications included building risk assessments but he cannot remember. Since 2016, risk assessments are completed by a number of people. Mr Cruz was not aware of the managers and general managers qualifications. Mr Cruz was not aware that the general manager was in charge of registering the rides. Mr Cruz has access to external companies in regards to engineering expertise. Members of external organisations had been working in the park prior to 2016. Mr Cruz tried to attend every weekly management meetings but was unable to make it to some. Safety was the first point on the agenda of those meetings and if a safety issues was raised, it would be addressed. We were then shown the annual mechanical and structural report for 2016 which was completed September 29, 2016 The only recommendation is to include the conveyor rollbacks as part of the daily check as the rollback gate at the top of the conveyor wasn’t working. Mr Cruz was asked if there were any documents that were required for this annual inspection that he couldn’t locate. His answer was “no”. Pitt and sherry were onsite days prior to the 2016 incident, inspecting the “big 9” but not TRR. Pitt and sherry are still performing audits, recommendations and development of rides at Dreamworld. After the closure of Dreamworld in 2016, Pitt and Sherry reviewed all the rides which were then re-reviewed by another company (LTC) before they could re open to the public. We have just adjourned for lunch and shall resume at 2:30

CCTV Footage of the 2014 incident was shown. A raft stopped at the bottom of the conveyor, outside of the unload station, the conveyor kept operating and a another raft came in contact and the rafts were bumping until the conveyor was stopped. Mr Cruz had never had any discussions with senior team members about previous incidents on the rapids ride. Mr Cruz has not been trained to complete risk assessments, audits or safety procedures on rides. Until recently, DW mostly engaged outside companies to complete risk assessments as there was a lack of knowledge and expertise within the Dreamworld staff. Mr Cruz agrees that other DW maintenance staff should be shown the CCTV as it would be useful. Mr Cruz was asked if there was a culture of secretism around ride issues prior to 2016. Mr Cruz didn’t respond. Mr Cruz was in contact with an external expert when they were required to visit the park. Mr Cruz was asked if external organisations should be aware of he CCTV footage of incidents. He responded with “I don’t know” Mr Cruz was asked about Pitt and Sherry and advised that they were onsite in the days before the 2016 incident, completing audits on other rides. Mr Cruz was instructed to provide documentation to Dreamworld lawyers after the incident. Mr Cruz was asked if those documents were available to any staff members but he doesn’t believe so. Mr Cruz was tasked with developing an auditing tool. As part of this, he went to a WHS conference. He then worked closely with WHS and Dreamworld Management to develop this tool. During the 2016 annual maintenance Mr Cruz can’t remember having difficulty finding maintenance documents to provide to the annual maintenance auditor. Mr Cruz was then shown emails between him and the Auditor of the 2016 maintenance. It was then confirmed that he did have difficulty finding daily and annual inspection schedules and documents for some rides but not others. Mr Cruz has stated that he received 3 months of training and that includes being shown each ride and their operations. This included the daily inspections and maintenance programs for 90% of the rides. He was only officially trained on about 60% of the rides. Mr Cruz was explained prior to starting that there was an electronic system for determining preventative maintenance. Mr Cruz believes after that 3 months, he had a full understanding of all the rides and daily/weekly maintenance programs at Dreamworld.

The first witness for the day he just been called. Gen Cruz who began at Dreamworld in September 2014 as a mechanical engineer. Mr Cruz would approach Peter Gardner (a senior maintenance staff member) to raise any concerns about the ride. Mr Cruz and Mr Gardner were the only two people at the time who had formal tertiary qualifications. My Cruz was asked if there should be recourse management after the event of a critical incident, such as a near miss. Mr Cruz was not aware of two near miss incidents in 2014 on rides nor was he aware of the 2014 TRR raft collision that happened. He was only made aware of this, days after the incident when he located the risk assessment completed after the raft collision. Mr Cruz was shown photos from the 2001 raft collision and he agreed with barristers that there should have been changes made but he was not aware of the incident. Mr Cruz was never shown cctv footage of the 2014 incident as it still exists. Mr Cruz maintains that this is the first time he has heard of a raft collision incident in 2014 but doesn’t agree that it would have been helpful if he was made aware of the incident as risk assessments are not a part of his role. Mr Cruz was asked if there was someone who was made aware or in charge of any incidents when they occur in terms of recourse management. Mr Cruz’s response “I don’t know”. Mr Cruz then later agreed that it would be helpful for engineering staff to be shown CCTV footage of the 2014 incident, or any critical incidents that occurred. Mr Cruz states that when there is a near miss, it is a collaborate effort to perform recourse management. Sina (new engineer hired in 2017) was the only other person with formal engineering qualifications outside of Mr Cruz and Mr Gardner. We were then shown the termination letter of the 2014 staff member. During the 2014 incident, there was a low air alarm and the ride operator shut the ride down without checking where all the rafts where. This resulted in a raft bottoming out ontop of the conveyor, one floating into the reservoir, and another colliding with the raft in the conveyor, pushing it down the conveyor until the conveyor was turned off. The ride operator at the time was only aware of the raft in the reservoir when the photo shop called and informed them. At this point, the ride op escalated the situation to a code 6 but has not followed the procedure to initiate shut down. Which states that the ride much be shut down in any situation where there is a risk of seriously injury to guests or staff or damage to equipment. The ride op did not raise the rapid ride alarm but instead restarted the conveyor when there was a raft at the bottom that was at a large risk of flipping due to the increased water pressure.

Okay guys, so there has been an NPO (Non Publish order) for the things discussed during the first moments of today. One of the journos has already gotten into trouble for posting it. I’ll figure out what’s going on and then post the details from early today if I can. Essentially, Angus Hutchins, the Safety Manager for Ardent, has applied to give evidence sooner rather than later as his mental condition is deteriorating after witnessing the event and court will be a very stressful time for him.

Hope y'all are not too sick of these reviews, because here come my personal opinions on the event. Mazes: I will agree with most of the reviews and say House of Kain is definitely the winning maze of this year. Whoever designed this one certainly had way too much fun doing it. The scares were about average, but the uniqueness and impressiveness of the sets and makeup were what made this maze. It's definitely one you have to go through slowly if you want to take everything in. This maze was definitely a step in the right direction, and the park should definitely try to make more unique mazes like this. I reckon a non-IP maze every year or two would be a great idea. Even with that said, I'm sure it would be possible to make a maze as unique as HoK and still follow an IP - there are plenty of horror movies out there which aren't your typical "serial killer on the loose" movie. 8/10. Leatherface was not a highlight for me. The thing that this maze has going for it is its reasonably long layout... but if you're going to have a long layout you need to make sure you have the right number of actors to fill the entire maze. I just felt there were too many "dead" areas, with no scare actors. I actually found that most of the scares came from loud bangs instead of the actors, which really shouldn't be the case. As other people said, it's similar to Halloween, but I actually prefer Halloween, as its sets are a little more diverse. Leatherface's set was mostly just unthemed hallways and "outdoor" areas. The campervan scene was pretty cool though. 5/10. Halloween I enjoyed just as much as last year, possibly more. It was by far the scariest maze of the night for me. This one was in fact a walk-on when I did it, which was great. 7/10 Jigsaw I wasn't a big fan of last year, although this year I found it to be a little better. Still not a big fan of the sets for this one though, being mostly empty hallways with strobe lights. One or two great jump-scares though. 6/10. Precincts and atmosphere: The Sci-Fear precinct was very impressive, although the actors in this area certainly weren't that scary. On the other hand, the actors in the Bloodwood precinct were really trying their hardest to scare people, although they didn't have a lot of space to work with. The Possessed precinct could hardly be described as one. Limited actors, with the focus being on the live music. I agree with there being too many safe zones, although they didn't stop some of the actors ending up in them trying to scare people (and I have no complaints about that - if you're going to fright nights you shouldn't be expecting to be "safe" anywhere in the park). One thing that I noticed about this year was that the in-park music had changed a bit. Last year the music was much more eerie and set the tone of the event very well, but this year the music was mainly rock and heavy metal, which definitely didn't set the right atmosphere. Apart from that though the overall atmosphere of the park was great. Overall, I would say this event is a very slight step up from last year's. Some improvements, but also plenty of things that still need improving to make this a perfect event. I think to get Fright Nights on the right track they need: A more diverse maze lineup (but HoK is a step in the right direction for this) - going to 5 or 6 mazes has been talked about, but I don't think there's much point doing so if the mazes aren't diverse enough More creative scares - especially in the case of Leatherface, the scares felt very repetitive. Again, HoK improved on this, one of my favourite scares of the night was the one where the person jumped out of the body. Better sets - Jigsaw and Leatherface had pretty dull sets. We know the maze designers know how to make a great set, so why do they keep making unthemed corridors a part of their mazes? Longer mazes and more actors - Jigsaw especially is not a long maze. Leatherface is the opposite, but just doesn't have enough actors to fill it. Larger precincts - there are plenty of large areas in the park that could be used as a precinct, such as the Wild West area or the Arkham courtyard. They don't have to try to shove a precinct into a small area such as the lawn out the front of Superman.