Dreamworld inquest: ‘Difficult’ for ride operators to keep up with demands of job

Operators on the doomed Thunder River Rapids were required to perform so many tasks that it would be “very difficult” to keep up with the demands of the job, an inquest into the deaths of the Dreamworld tragedy has been told.

CORONER James McDougall has offered his condolences to families of the Thunder River Rapids disaster victims as the inquest wrapped up on the Gold Coast.

After more than six weeks of evidence spread across six months, the hearing concluded on the Gold Coast on Friday.

Mr McDougall thanked the families who turned up week after week to listen to harrowing evidence and offered his condolences.

Lawyers still have to present written closing submissions to the coroner, with findings expected to be handed down next year.

‘Difficult’ for ride operators to keep up

RIDE operators on the doomed Thunder River Rapids were required to perform an average of one task per second, an inquest has been told.

University Professor Penelope Sanderson, a specialist in cognitive systems engineering in human behaviour, submitted a report to Coroner James McDougall into the 2016 deaths of Kate Goodchild, Luke Dorsett, Roozi Araghi and Cindy Low.

She identified 38-43 separate signal tasks that operators would need to perform in each cycle of the ride and conceded it would be “very difficult” for attendants to maintain performance or respond to an emergency.

“It would be difficult to comply with that level of perfection,” she said.

“It would be very difficult to sustain it for any length of time, raft after raft.

“Emergencies occur in a way that they are surprising … there may be a delay (in responding).”

Tougher regime for theme parks backed

A senior safety engineer has joined calls for tougher safety requirements and testing for theme park rides across Queensland as the marathon Dreamworld inquest draws to a close.

Workplace Health and Safety’s chief safety engineer Michael Chan told the inquest he agrees with a recommendation to tighten the enforcement process. “We need to expand the scope of the annual inspections to include a risk assessment,” Mr Chan said.

He also supported the introduction of a mandatory full risk assessment every 10 years as an “imposition, but a necessary one”.

“The system will only work if the system is robust and someone is checking the checker,” he said.

Mr Chan said more engineers were needed to keep up with the required inspections.

“There are so many rides and so few engineers. I don’t believe it is possible to do a thorough ‘what if’ for every annual inspection.” Mr Chan told the inquest significant steps had been taken to improve the safety. “As long as I am here, I am determined to make it work.” Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild, her brother Luke Dorsett and his partner Roozi Araghi died in October 2016 when a water pump on the Thunder River Rapids malfunctioned at the theme park.

The inquest has had extensive hearings to determine the cause of the accident. It has uncovered multiple ride malfunctions in the days leading up to the October 25 deaths, which should have triggered an investigation and inspection of the attraction.

The tragedy has prompted a review of inspection procedures with a major overhaul of theme park safety across Queensland.

The hearing is expected to end on Friday after running for more than six weeks across this year.

Coroner James McDougall is not expected to hand down his findings until 2019.

Originally published as Dreamworld inquest: ‘Difficult’ for ride operators to keep up with demands of job