Dreamworld Inquest final day: Theme park offers heartfelt apology to staff and victims

DREAMWORLD has apologised to its current and former staff affected by the tragedy after the first two week block of the coronial inquest adjourned this afternoon. See our live coverage.

DREAMWORLD has apologised to its current and former staff affected by the tragedy after the first two week block of the coronial inquest adjourned this afternoon.

A spokeswoman from Dreamworld released the statement as soon as the Southport Coroner’s Court adjourned after the first two weeks of hearings. “Dreamworld is profoundly sorry this tragedy occurred,” she statement said. “We acknowledge that shocking and deeply concerning evidence has been presented at the Coronial Inquest. “We know that this has been a harrowing time for all, particularly the victims’ families. We are sorry that they have had to relive the trauma of that terrible day in October 2016.” The inquest is set to resume in early October for a second two week block of witnesses. The Dreamworld statement continued by reaching out to staff. “We apologise to our former and current Dreamworld staff who have also been affected by this tragedy, some of whom have endured significant time as witnesses reliving the accident. We thank them for doing their best to assist the Coroner,” the statement said. “This Coronial Inquest is not yet completed, Dreamworld remains committed to participating in it and learning all we can to ensure that such tragic accidents are not repeated.” Earlier counsel assisting the coroner Ken Fleming warned it was too early to draw any conclusions. THE counsel assisting the coroner in the Dreamworld inquest has warned not to pre-empt any findings in the inquiry into what happened on the Thunder River Rapids ride on October 25, 2016. The tragedy killed four people in a horrifying incident on what was regarded one of the safest rides at the park. Counsel assisting the coroner Ken Fleming warned nothing should be pre-empted. “We cannot at this point reach any conclusions because that can only be done at the end of all the evidence and the appropriate assessing of that evidence,” he said. The inquest will adjourn this afternoon after two weeks of evidence. Mr Fleming, coroner James McDougall and an army of lawyers will return to Southport Coroner’s Court in October for another two week session. A third block of hearings will be held in November. Seconds from safety: The victims Mr Fleming said the inquest was about 18 or 19 witnesses behind schedule. “We have to continue to build the basic factual basis to all of this and then we move into the next levels, how the technical details of what was happening, the governance stuff, and then the experts who can give us evidence of the safety features of rides and how they should be or shouldn’t be,” he said. Mr Fleming said there had been a lot of facts presented in the first two weeks and time was needed to digest what had happened. “So we are not pre-empting anything, it’s all an investigation so we just see how the evidence comes out,” Mr Fleming said. “We want the opportunity to review how it’s proceeding in what order we do things from here on.” Mechanic Mark Gordon is currently on the stand and is expected to be the final witness before the court adjourns this afternoon. DREAMWORLD staff did not adhere to Australian standards on a “routine basis,” the Dreamworld engineering supervisor has told the inquest into the four deaths on the Thunder River Rapids Ride. Dreamworld engineering supervisor Peter Gardner said Australian standards were often referred to when maintaining rides at the park. Counsel assisting the coroner Ken Fleming asked: “As a matter of practice, within your discipline, are those standards brought to attention and are the propositions adhered to in the rides and their functioning?” “Not on a routine basis,” Mr Gardner replied. Mr Gardner also confirmed the ride should have been shut down after the pump shut down twice. Dreamworld training procedures come under questioning “How many times must something breakdown within a short space of time before somebody says enough is enough,” Mr Flemming asked “Twice in the same day,” Mr Gardner replied. Mr Gardner also took the inquest through the rigorous safety measures taken following the incident. He said prior to reopening the park Dreamworld had engaged outside auditors to go over every ride in the park. Their work was then checked by an external team. The time it took to complete the audit prevented all rides from opening when Dreamworld opened 45 days after the tragedy. However, at the time, police stopped Dreamworld from opening the park in the days following the incident as they were still conducting investigations. THE Dreamworld engineering supervisor has not taken part in an internal investigation since the disaster in October 25, 2016 the inquest has heard. Dreamworld engineering supervisor Peter Gardner told the inquest he had not been invited to take park in any internal Dreamworld investigation following the incident. Barrister Matthew Hickey, acting for Cindy Low’s family asked: “You have no way of knowing if there are currently people in your department who may well be responsible for those events, do you?” “No,” Mr Gardner replied. Mr Gardner told the inquest he was not aware some of the people who had fixed the first two faults with the pump had not followed the Dreamworld breakdown procedure. The official written breakdown procedure stated rides should be shut down if the same malfunction happened twice. Numerous Dreamworld employees told the inquest they understood the policy be to shut a ride down after three faults. Mr Hickey asked if Mr Gardner was surprised he had not been involved in an internal investigation. Dreamworld lawyer James Bell objected to the question claimed it was not relevant to the findings. Coroner James McDougall slapped him down and said he was interested in hearing Mr Gardner’s opinion. “I’m not surprised that I wasn’t invited to the investigation and was working in a separate department at the time,” Mr Gardner said. A DREAMWORLD electrician thought there was a fast emergency stop button on the main console button, the inquest into the Thunder River Rapids Ride disaster had heard. Electrician Quentin Dennis said he understood there was an emergency button which almost immediately stopped the conveyor just above the control panel. Mr Dennis said he had not been assigned to do checks on the ride in a “long time” but his recollection was the button stopped the conveyor almost immediately. The inquest has previously heard the only button on the panel which stopped the conveyor took about eight seconds to stop. The same button Mr Dennis thought stopped the conveyor quickly the inquest has previously been told only stopped one of the ride’s two pumps. Mr Dennis was asked if he would be concerned if there was no longer an emergency stop button at the main console. “Yes,” he replied. A DREAMWORLD electrician would never let a mechanic reset a pump after a failure, the inquest into the Thunder River Rapids Ride disaster has heard. The inquest into the death of four people on October 25, 2016 has already heard the pump was reset by a mechanic just hours before the disaster. The tragedy occurred after a pump stopped working on the ride, causing water levels to drop and a raft to become stuck on the conveyor belt. That raft was hit by another carrying Luke Dorsett, his sister Kate Goodchild, her daughter Ebony, 12, Roozbeh Araghi, Cindy Low and her son, Kieran, 10. The four adults were killed. The inquest heard a mechanic reset the pump at the second failure on the day after electrician Francoire De Villiers showed him how to do it just after the pump failed for the first time. Dreamworld electrician Quentin Dennis told the inquest this morning he would never shown a fitter how to reset an earth fault. Dreamworld trainer to face questioning over Thunder River Rapid ride “No, I wouldn’t show them because they don’t have experience on drives on the electric side of things,” he said. Mr Dennis said an earth fault was not a common occurrence on the Thunder River Rapids Ride. The south pump experienced an earth fault on October 19 and 23. It then experienced an earth fault twice the morning of the disaster before the pump broke down for a third time leading to the tragedy. The inquest into the disaster has entered it’s tenth day. The inquiry will be adjourned at the end of the day until October followed by another block of hearings in November.

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