Thunder River Rapids Incident Coronial Inquest

[razza1987]

4 hours ago, reubot said:

The families have made their mind on who is at fault:

"We hold Dreamworld totally responsible for this tragic event that could have so easily been avoided."

 

Thank you so much for posting this! I could only find the Gold Coast bulletin article which is subscription based only 

[pushbutton]

A sort of brief editorial summary of the weeks processings in todays paper. 

 

[Jessicajealousy]

 

Seriously Dreamworld??

Edited June 25, 2018 by Jessicajealousy

[New display name]

A person with management or control of certain types of plant must apply to register it with Workplace Health and Safety Queensland.  A person must not use registerable plant, and a PCBU must not direct or allow a worker to use registrable plant at a workplace unless the plant has been registered.

I don't know the laws around this but somebody on here is sure to know?

 

[webslave]

Is this sly reporting though?  It's plausible that they sought an extension to the registration to allow them more time to have someone inspect it and said extension was granted. 

[New display name]

1 minute ago, webslave said:

Is this sly reporting though?  It's plausible that they sought an extension to the registration to allow them more time to have someone inspect it and said extension was granted. 

I do believe this is the case and WHS was booked in to inspect it in December. 

[webslave]

1 minute ago, Skeeta said:

I do believe this is the case and WHS was booked in to inspect it in December. 

That makes more sense.  I didn't like the implication that it was operating unregistered.

[New display name]

8 minutes ago, webslave said:

That makes more sense.  I didn't like the implication that it was operating unregistered.

Everybody needs to understand the information coming out of the inquest is only snippets of a bigger testimony. 

Example:

Snippet:             The Thunder River Rapids ride's official registration with Workplace Health & Safety Qld expired nine months before tragedy.

Reaction:           DW were running rides unregistered.

Truth:                  WHS gave extension to DW due to circumstances we don’t know about.

Snippet:

Reaction:            DW wasn't spending money on maintenance.

Truth:                  ?

 

 

[MacPark]

Im gonna be honest, This isnt looking good for Dreamworld. Im starting to think they wont recover from this..

[New display name]

2 hours ago, webslave said:

That makes more sense.  I didn't like the implication that it was operating unregistered.

"After discovering their in-house engineering team did not meet the government requirements to perform the safety inspections, Dreamworld asked for and was granted an extension until September 30, 2016.

Dreamworld's former health and safety manager Mark Thompson, who began in his role in March 2016, was then forced to ask for a further extension from Workplace Health and Safety Queensland (WHSQ) on September 29 as the park's "Big Nine" rides were yet to be inspected".

[Brad2912]

So a senior maintenance supervisor who had worked on the ride for many years didn’t know there different timing to the e-stop buttons, and had never pressed them. 

If they don’t test the e-stops regularly, how do they know if they even work?

——————————————

DREAMWORLD had stopped an alarm from sounding when the water pumps stopped more than a year prior to the disaster, the inquest has heard.

It was the failure of the south pump for the third time on October 25, 2016 which led to a raft flipping and killing four people.

A policy which was reviewed in June 2015, showed a crossed out paragraph about the prior alarm.

Crossed out from a policy document was: “(An alarm will sound) when the main water pumps stop for this ride. If the pump stops for this ride then there is the potential for rafts to become a hazard to guests riding them. The rafts are very heavy and there are a lot of underwater obstacles that could cause the rafts to flip or entrap a guest”.

The policy had been changed to include these words instead:

“The Rapid Ride alarm will be sounded if there is a potential risk to any guest or staff member in the ride area — example: a guest or staff member has fallen in the water,” the police said.

“This is a change from previous where the alarm would be activated due to the water pumps stopping.”

——————————————

DREAMWORLD was operating behind budget in the months as a direction that “repairs and maintenance spending needs to stop” given just five months before the October 2016 disaster, an inquest has heard.

Dreamworld safety manager Mark Thompson was shown the minutes from a meeting for the executive safety team in March 2016 detailing information about the park’s financial position.

“Revenue is up but profit is down, cut backs are now being enforced,” the document said.

“Repairs and maintenance spending needs to stop.”

 

Edited June 25, 2018 by Brad2912

[joel]

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/dreamworld-staff-on-stand-at-inquest-20180625-p4znjl.html

 

READ THE ABOVE LINK

TRR is a big 9 thrill ride???

you have rocks in your head if you think that !!!

[Themeparkfan]

Yep ardent should just sell the park now I can see this getting very ugly for them it was common knowledge they had cut back on other areas of the park (eg theming and general building upkeep) in the last 5 to 10 years I had no idea they would also compromise on guest safety so sad 

[red dragin]

Probably a good thing their Steam loco's where replaced with the abomination then

Wouldn't want a 150psi 150+ degree pressure vessel with (prohibited) cast iron fittings failing in a place like that. 

[dbo121]

Does a big red looking e stop button need a label ? ( assume this was in the panel )

Did the ride technically fail due to underspend ? No water pump failures have always been common, frequency of failure may have been higher .

Would more safety staff or an earlier external audit prevent the accident ? Doubt it people had become complacent.

multiple things leading to unlikely event. Not sure a pro active risk culture would have solved.. just reduced likelihood.

a better ride system reducing human input  is the key 🔑 

Edited June 25, 2018 by dbo121

[JaggedJanine]

4 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

If they don’t test the e-stops regularly, how do they know if they even work?

There was a senior ride op today that said she often took it into her own hands to test out the estops when there were no guests on board.

Edited June 25, 2018 by JaggedJanine
publicly known name removed

[Whombex]

21 minutes ago, JaggedJanine said:

There was a senior ride op today(REDACTED) that said she often took it into her own hands to test out the estops when there were no guests on board.

Suggest you redact their name to protect them, Janine. Quite likely DW are reading this thread.

[JaggedJanine]

But the whole thing is public. *confused* But okkkaaayyyyy.............

Edited June 25, 2018 by JaggedJanine

[joz]

OK so they had a ride which they knew had an issue that was dangerous, didn't communicate that danger to staff, knew what modifications to make to solve it but didn't do them, removed an alarm which may have given the ops staff a chance to abort the disaster, and didn't train tech services properly. They also lied to the coroner, stopped spending on maintenance, and appeared to have deficient processes in place. That's basically the story yeah?

 

I mean what are you even supposed to say to that? Dreamworld is the only theme park in the world that would actually benefit from an advertising campaign that goes 'Our old maintenance manager, ops manager, CEO and Chairperson of the board are in jail now, it's safe to come back'

 

What's scary about it is the people who modified TRR are the same people who are still looking after things out there. The same people who looked after the TRR also put the cages on the log ride.

Edited June 25, 2018 by joz

[T-bone]

1 hour ago, red dragin said:

Probably a good thing their Steam loco's where replaced with the abomination then

Wouldn't want a 150psi 150+ degree pressure vessel with (prohibited) cast iron fittings failing in a place like that. 

I’m not sure if you are serious or not. You of all people should know that the steam engines were in good condition when they were retired. Not only that but the engines were maintained by a dedicated crew devoted to those engines, and I very much doubt they would have signed off on them every day had they not felt they were safe, after all their lives were at risk.

[red dragin]

The Perry had a well undersized flange (vertical wheel edge for the non train people) on its trailing truck (wheel under the cab) which was removed and has been replaced.

It also had at least one cast fitting on top of the boiler within the cabin. 

I watched the point blade from the Dreamworld sheds to the main line wobble along its axis loosely as the train ran over it, almost like it wasn't connected. Think like a screw turning back and forth. 

The railway there is classed as an amusement ride, it doesn't fall under railway legislation. It appears to be maintained the same way their other rides have been. 

I'm sure that the crew did their best with the funds and time they had. 

Edited June 25, 2018 by red dragin

[T-bone]

Yes, the pony truck was replaced when it got to Woodford, but at the end of the day that’s general wear and tear, and it was safe for the running that occurred at the park, not safe for the type of operation at Woodford though. Regardless it was due for replacement and would have received it had they not been retired.

The track condition may not be great right now, but track condition has deteriorated since the diesel entered service, A very different set of circumstances. 

I’m curious what you are referring to about the prohibited cast iron fitting?

The attraction may come under an amusement device, but the boilers on the steam locos were certified and ticketed appropriately.

Sorry for going slightly off topic, with the amount Of mud slinging happening, I’d hate to see more mud slung where it isn’t true, 

[red dragin]

Fireman's side of the boiler, towards the top, is/was a cast elbow fitting. My understanding is that cast parts aren't allowed on boilers. I could be wrong but I trust the person that taught me that. 

Pony truck was used beyond the allowable limit on a railway. 

Point blade, that observation was from November 8th 2015, the day my son rode his first "big" ride, Thunder River Rapids. 😔

[Jdude95]

Okay everyone, so this week I am attending the Dreamworld Inquest and taking notes from within the courtroom. These notes are purely just me writing what is said and doesn't include any personal opinions or bias. This also includes information that wasn't necessarily posted by the media as they generally pick one focus point per day and only talk about that.  I was posting these notes to a group of people throughout the day as it happened and it was requested that I combine all the notes from today into one document and post it here. I'm posting it as a viewable google document as I'd rather not post my 5 page summary of today directly into the forums.
Some of the notes may seem like it's out of order or a bit out of nowhere but the whole document is in chronological order as it was discussed

As I will be there all week and it's been requested that I post the updates on here, I would like to put it out to you guys, would you prefer a summary at the end of each day or would you prefer I post the live updates directly into here as they happen? The live updates will be a bit hurried and most likely very frequent (with potential grammatical errors) so it could still spam the thread. I also wont be able to reply to anyone for any questions or clarifications until I've made it home for the day, as information comes fast and heavy with this inquest.

Anyway, here is the link the today's notable findings.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dXKLUHzy_glOlVLMwN0pXghXpJQxODat18LZvsNTAlg/edit?usp=sharing

Edited June 25, 2018 by Jdude95
Derped the link

[joel]

4 hours ago, Glubbo said:

Suggest you redact their name to protect them, Janine. Quite likely DW are reading this thread.

 

4 hours ago, JaggedJanine said:

There was a senior ride op today that said she often took it into her own hands to test out the estops when there were no guests on board.

1. Probably you should not use names

2. This operator is probably the longest employee if I am thinking of the right one and probably the best one to. So don’t get her in trouble.