Queensland Government investigates dozens of incidents

[dreamworld_rulz]

Queensland Government investigates dozens of incidents November 24, 2007 01:00am Article from: The Courier-Mail * FOI documents reveal freak accidents * Theme park staff, entertainers hurt * Incident reports censored or withheld A TIGER escaped from its enclosure, a dugong attacked a diver and a terrified child was left dangling from an amusement ride in a series of bizarre mishaps at Gold Coast theme parks. A Dreamworld attendant was made to stand in the hot sun for four hours straight with no breaks or shade. The incidents were among dozens investigated by the Queensland government and include an explosion at Movie World in which three men were badly burned, one losing an eye. Workplace health and safety documents obtained under Freedom of Information also revealed another serious skiing accident during a stunt at Sea World last year. Out-of-control jet ski slams into audience A man, believed to be Liam Alrich, suffered a shocking leg injury when he was rammed against a "safety wall" erected after an out-of-control jet ski slammed into the audience hurting four people seated in the stadium in 2002. Nearly all accident victims in recent years were employees of theme parks. Gold Coast trick rider Sarah Nicholas, 20, whose act included standing on a horse and riding blindfolded, suffered head injuries in a fall at the Australian Outback Spectacular. She left to pursue a nursing career but told me she is still a trick rider part-time. "It's fun," she said. Workplace health and safety officers expressed anger after finding a young log ride attendant at Dreamworld was made to "stand in the hot sun for four hours straight with no breaks or shade". "The dingo had better protection than the worker," investigator Ray Billiet reported. Dreamworld then changed its work practices and erected shades. Incident reports censored or withheld Not all the reports into workplace health and safety were released. Several were censored or withheld because their release was not deemed to be in the public interest. These included a five-page report on a log ride "incident" at Dreamworld, a report on ride seatbelts at Dreamworld, and a report on a "horse colliding with a pedestrian" at Australian Outback Spectacular. An investigation into a lifeguard rescue at Wet 'n' Wild also was withheld. Other incidents include a near-fatal carbon monoxide poisoning at Wet 'n' Wild and a complaint by a worker that he suffered an electric shock from an automatic teller machine at Dreamworld. Theme park bosses said incidents involving members of the public were rare. And Minister for Workplace Safety John Mickel said there had been no adverse findings against the safety of amusement rides. However there were complaints that an attendant laughed when a terrified child was left dangling from Dreamworld's Reef Diver spinning ride. The child's mother complained the velcro strap holding the boy came loose. However it is believed the boy was still safely secured inside a metal cage. Celebrity dugong rams scuba diver At Sea World earlier this year a scuba diver suffered neck injuries when he was rammed by Pig, the 250kg celebrity dugong raised at Sea World after he was found orphaned at Ingham in 1998. At Dreamworld, operator error was blamed in part for a series of collisions on the log ride with cabins known as capsules bumping into each other. There were no reports of injury. Dreamworld was also cited last year for allowing combustible debris and vegetation to build up around its dangerous goods storage area. And it was criticised for an incomplete safety management system for the storage of dangerous goods. Movie World answered a complaint that a worker had been harassed and another complaint of broken asbestos sheeting being found lying near the Lethal Weapon ride. In March last year investigators reported that a warehouse assistant was rushed to hospital after being exposed to elevated levels of carbon monoxide at Wet 'n' Wild. The worker became unwell while operating an LPG-powered forklift in a coldroom for about 50 minutes. The theme park has since switched to electric-powered forklifts. Mr Mickel said: "Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has built a co-operative and positive relationship with the theme parks over many years which has led to a high level of compliance with safety regulations and adoption of industry best practice." Please note : I've copied and pasted this because I'm a copy and post expert. Link to story

[Gazza]

Please note : I've copied and pasted this because I'm a copy and post expert. biggrin.gif

You do realize that people wouldn't care so much about you copying and pasting if you just made your own comment on the things you post up?

[Gold Coaster]

Exactly. Anyone can cut and paste. Try offering some commentary.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

You do realize that people wouldn't care so much about you copying and pasting if you just made your own comment on the things you post up?

Exactly. Anyone can cut and paste. Try offering some commentary.

You know what's worse than copying and pasting a story to start off a topic with a great talking point? People who kill the conversation immediately by harassing the thread starter about lack of commentary, without offering some commentary themselves. Don't get me wrong Gazza, I agree with you, but its very unlike you not to offer your views at the same time. Tony on the other hand only repeated what you said, which didn't help things any and only stood to further kill the topic. I'd be interested to know what reports were held back as being "not in the public interest". To me this says a more serious incident that would undermine the confidence in the ride, but, under freedom of information, this is the report I would more prefer to know about. Seems quite a few little issues at the log ride, maybe that will get shut down next - as far as reef diver, I've always thought that the inertial travel of the ride would stop you from falling out. Thats why the restraints are only velcro - moreso to prevent you trying to stand up or move around. Unless the ride was elevated, and not rotating, the rider's restraint coming loose would have done very little unless he attempted to move around, which was in itself stupid, and entirely his own fault. As far as the operator laughing, this is probably moreso overhyped by the mother or other bystander. Its more likely the operator was looking up at the ride and had the sun in his eyes, and did a "squint smile" that the mother misconstrued as him laughing. Explosion at movie world? lost an eye? What the? Let's find out more about this one... Interesting to note though that WVTP's injuries are moreso staff and back of house people than guests, while dreamworld appears to have a little more on the guest side.

[dreamworld_rulz]

Ok maybe i went OTT with the C & P bit but i didn't think it needed a commentary. I'm quite surprised that there's been so many accidents. Getting zapped at an ATM machine is a first. I remember think it was last year where i got zapped in the queue line for the T.O.T.

[Gazza]

^My post was more of a specific response to DW-Rulz's comment at the end of the post and his signature. I'm not worried that much about these incidents. Dugongs hurting divers is not something you can control, the op in the sun for 4 hours just comes down to poor management, hopefully no long lasting effects from that one, I would hop they would at least provide broad brimmed hats and sunscreen for people in those sorts of positions, though at the end of the day there are many jobs out there that require you to stand in the sun. A lot of these incidents seem related to stunt shows (Could the explosion at MW be something related to the Police Academy Show) and if you are working on that sort of thing there is a higher risk of injury...I'f imagine during training and rehearsals they would have clear procedures on how to pull of the stunt with minimal risk. It frustrates me when they wont release stuff because it is "not in the public interest"...to me that just screams out "not in the interest of the company" or "not in the interests of government"...they aren't interested in the public at all, they just want to save face. I hope these sorts of things change in the future, as there are a lot of things I would have been interested on reading up on, but the organisations (Eg the media) trying to gain access to the documents have been blocked. As for the ATM incident, bleh that's the manufacturers and banks fault entirely.

Edited November 25, 2007 by Gazza

[Gold Coaster]

^ And I didn't have the time to post a commentary when making the post. I mean it's not like the thread implodes or something by making a fair comment. That's quite a few accidents to have happened. First time I've heard of someone getting zapped at an ATM and while I'm sure that won't be the last time, the major thing is it's something that could easily happen to any of us. And an attendant laughing at a kid potentially being in danger is disgusting. I agree with you though Gazza that this stuff should be made available more - parks are more accountable that way.

Edited November 25, 2007 by Tony Teulan

[kieran]

Due to my post being deleted I will re write what i said.... the explosion was during the filming of House of Wax, something to do with candles lighting something up and then it exploding.... memory's sketchy on it.

[Gazza]

the explosion was during the filming of House of Wax, something to do with candles lighting something up and then it exploding.... memory's sketchy on it.

That was just a fire, not an explosion, It caused a sound stage to be severely damaged...anyway this couldn't be it since the incident happened in the studios, the studios aren't a theme park so It wouldn't fall under the banner of what the Qld. Government was investigating (Theme park incidents)

[Richard]

The explosion was an incident back in February 2003 in the studios' pyrotechnic compound which creates fireworks and special effects for studio productions and the Police Academy Stunt Show; three guys were badly burned, one of which had burns to 60 per cent of his body. Anyone else sick of these freedom of information 'reports' by papers and TV news? They seem to be great at informing us about either things we already know, or things that really aren't newsworthy.

[saberon]

slow news day...