Hypothetical - if Thunder River Rapids didn’t happen?

[T-bone]

So I got talking with some friends about what the theme park and amusement industry would be like if Thunder River Rapids didn’t happen, and I wanted to ask the wider community for a hypothetical discussion. 
 

What would Dreamworld be like right now had the accident had not occured?

What would the other less directly impacted operators be like, such as Aussie world, Luna Parks, Funfields etc.

Second hypothetical, what do you think the industry would be like if Green Lantern’s incident killed people? Sure GL would have been a manfufacturer fault, but in the eyes of the public, it was still Movie Worlds ride. 
 

 

[Cactus_Matt]

Honestly don't think Dreamworld would be much better off than it is, financially and in the eyes of the public sure they would be better. But I think the majority of their ride removal decisions still would have happened as they seem more like an issue with mismanagement and expensive fixes rather than a direct result of TRRR incident. The only ride that might still be chugging away if the TRRR incident didn't  happen would arguably be the Log Ride as it's continued "fixes" would be cheaper than those that cost the loss of Tower of Terror and Wipeout.

[Levithian]

Everything about how they ran and maintained their attractions was a disaster waiting to happen. 

Highly likely they would have seriously injured or killed other people. Potentially on the same ride.

[Jdude95]

Management wouldn't have changed, park would have continued to go down the hill, people would have died eventually. It was a matter of time 

[red dragin]

8 minutes ago, Jdude95 said:

Management wouldn't have changed, park would have continued to go down the hill, people would have died eventually. It was a matter of time 

Agreed.

The only thing that might have stopped that, would have been if people had died on Green Lantern. The GP doesn't care who's fault it would have been, they would have avoided Movie World. The State Government would have taken a greater interest in the park maintenance schedules and possibly picked up on the poor state of affairs at Dreamworld.

[Jdude95]

If GL happened, TRR wouldn't have. The thing about GL is that it would have happened right at the very front of the park, been just as horrific and taken out 8 people, at least TRR was hidden away within the park. Village would have had the book thrown at them but I can guarantee that a second book would have been flying for Ardent too.

[red dragin]

53 minutes ago, Jdude95 said:

If GL happened, TRR wouldn't have. The thing about GL is that it would have happened right at the very front of the park, been just as horrific and taken out 8 people, at least TRR was hidden away within the park. Village would have had the book thrown at them but I can guarantee that a second book would have been flying for Ardent too.

Gotta use 'possibly' and 'probably' around here, or else you get book thrown at you too 😂 

[joz]

I reckon it would have, OH&S would look at MW's practices and gone 'While you're not perfect, the theme parks in house practices are good' so there wouldn't have been the big industry shake up we saw after TRR. Yeah attendance would be in the crapper, but I think it wouldn't be a wake up call that resonated with DW. Probably more along the lines of 'We need to check up on manufacturer's engineering' without really looking at their own.

 

I think a few public comments about how Village were taking action against S&S and revealing the failures that they made might do a lot to win favor with the public. Yes theme parks would still be scary, but so long as S&S is the villan recovery would have been much shorter than DW where it was layers and layers of them being the worst at everything.

[rappa]

I feel like there isn’t all that much hypothetical to this topic actually when it comes to Green Lantern’s impact. 
 

Regardless of whether the incident led to tragedy or not I don’t think the outcome would have changed much in terms of government oversight. The government isn’t silly, it would have known how close things came. The big difference between this and TRR is this was an engineering and design/manufacture problem. Is wasn’t a systemic failure in process of management, compliance, regulatory oversight and safety analysis. 
The only real difference in outcome as I see it as the ride would likely have been removed. Yes there have been fatalities on rides overseas that have reopened, however the fact Green Lantern is not that special a ride, and a giant big reminder of tragedy at the front of your park is somewhat less than desirable I think tends to suggest it would have been removed. 
 

The big impact that TRR had on the public was not so much that someone died, it was that the park clearly cared more about the bottom dollar than they did on safety. So the public felt betrayed because it was almost as though DW caused the accident. As opposed to a freak unforeseeable tragedy.  

[Levithian]

You only have to look back over the breech notices handed to village roadshow across all their parks since the government stepped up their game to see who had their house in pretty good order prior to the dreamworld accident. 

In one way, its kind of good it happened because it didn't just create a lot of change for theme parks, but those same standards are supposed to carry over to all amusement devices. So that means we all should be a lot safer going to regional shows, etc and using the rides. One downside is that it might force a few operators out of business, or force them to sell/scrap some rides though. 

One thing im not sure of though, if the accident hadn't of happened, would village have opened the purses to allow such a big spend for DC rivals? They wanted a big statement to turn crowds back to them and it was the result. We probably would have been due a new ride, but it might have just ended up a replacement for arkham asylum, so the budget might have been substantially less. Could literally be the catalyst for australia getting a hypercoaster, and now a pretty sweet launch coaster too. 

[Jdude95]

1 hour ago, Levithian said:

One thing im not sure of though, if the accident hadn't of happened, would village have opened the purses to allow such a big spend for DC rivals? They wanted a big statement to turn crowds back to them and it was the result. We probably would have been due a new ride, but it might have just ended up a replacement for arkham asylum, so the budget might have been substantially less. Could literally be the catalyst for australia getting a hypercoaster, and now a pretty sweet launch coaster too. 

Rivals was in the pipeline long before TRR happened. That just pushed it back. From them having to rebrand the whole thing and scrap all marketing to the delays from having the Government crawling around everything for a few months while they gave the ok to Village to continue as they were. 

Edited October 7, 2020 by Jdude95

[Brad2912]

I also think the type of ride also impacts on public opinion/outrage in the event of an accident/incident. 
 

Despite the fact it shouldn’t matter and from a safety and compliance standpoint there is no difference, the average Ma and Pa Public will be less outraged/shocked/enraged hearing someone was injured or killed on a rollercoaster that is high speed/intensity/inversions etc than on a fairly placid family ride you can bring your 2 year old on. 
 

that alone would have, in my opinion, caused a disparity in public sentiment if GL had of derailed versus what happened on TRR. The fact there were kids on the raft that survived made it hit home further as it made it more relatable to even those that don’t frequent parks at all. Had one of those children, god forbid, become a victim, I don’t think Dreamworld EVER recovers and probably isn’t even operating today. 
 

Edited October 7, 2020 by Brad2912

[Richard]

15 hours ago, Jdude95 said:

Rivals was in the pipeline long before TRR happened. That just pushed it back. From them having to rebrand the whole thing and scrap all marketing to the delays from having the Government crawling around everything for a few months while they gave the ok to Village to continue as they were. 

You can guarantee there was a debate about whether to significantly delay it or even pull the plug but ultimately they went ahead on schedule and there were no significant delays as a result of TRR.

Name/theme/marketing changes sure, but groundwork was underway prior to the incident, track showed up a few months later and it was assembled like clockwork, save for a few design/fabrication hiccups. 
No doubt the certification/approval process was more involved and a few things were changed, rushed or scrapped but it was always destined for a September 2017 launch.

 

[Naazon]

I think TRR had a massive flow on effect to Aussie World for sure.

 

SX360 still isn't open or even an ETA being given. Their future expansions such as replacement wild mouse are also up in the air.