Dreamworld drops lawsuit over Thunder River Rapids ride

Four people died when a pump failed on Dreamworld’s Thunder River Rapids ride but the Gold Coast theme park’s owners have quietly dropped their lawsuit against the engineer who certified the ride as safe.

Dreamworld’s owners have quietly dropped their lawsuit against the engineer who certified the Thunder River Rapids ride as safe, just a day before the disaster that killed four.

On June 27, lawyers for Ardent Leisure, which owns the Gold Coast theme park, filed a notice of discontinuance of their Supreme Court claim that had blamed engineer Tom Polley for the October 2016 tragedy and the fact it had to pay staff more than $5m in compensation.

The company filed its claim in the Brisbane court against Mr Polley and his company Danski Pty Ltd, seeking damages for negligence and breach of contract in March last year.

The claim revealed that 15 Dreamworld staff received payouts of between $110,000 and $700,000 each.

Mr Polley and Danski filed a defence to the claim last year, alleging Ardent had “consistently failed to carry out its obligations under the Workplace Health and Safety Act” and was itself responsible for the disaster.

In its claim, Ardent stated Danski was contracted in August 2016 to give the ride its annual inspection for Workplace Health and Safety registration.

Court documents allege that on October 24, 2016 – a day before the fatal accident – Mr Polley provided a certificate stating that the Thunder River Rapids ride was “mechanically and structurally safe” provided one fault was fixed.

Engineering consultant Thomas Polley. Picture: AAP

But the following day, a pump on the ride failed, the water level plunged and two rafts collided – one of them flipping and tipping patrons onto the conveyor belt.

Ardent had claimed that Mr Polley provided an inspection certificate stating that the Thunder River Rapids ride was mechanically and structurally safe to operate “when it was not”.

The claim alleged that the engineer failed to identify safety issues including the

absence of a water level detection system that would see the conveyor automatically shut down in the event of a pump failure.

In their defence, Danski and Mr Polley state that Ardent had pleaded guilty to breaching the Workplace Health and Safety Act by failing to provide and maintain safe plant, safe systems of work and staff training. Danski and Mr Polley said they were told by Dreamworld in August 2016 the inspection was needed to maintain registration “when in fact the Thunder River Rapids ride was not registered at all” between about January 2016 and January 2017.

The Board of Professional Engineers has been asked to hand over all records relating to Mr Polley since 2013 as part of the legal action.

In inquest findings handed down in 2020, the-then Coroner James McDougall recommended that Mr Polley be referred to the Board.

Ardent was fined $3.6m in 2020 after pleading guilty to workplace health and safety breaches.

Canberra tourists Kate Goodchild, her brother Luke, his partner Roozbeh Araghi and NSW woman Cindy Low died in the tragedy.