Why the Dreamworld tragedy hits home

OPINION: The Dreamworld tragedy strikes a chord. Many of us have visited the Gold Coast theme park and it could have been any of us. So will we go back?

OPINION

YESTERDAY’S tragedy at Dreamworld is one that is likely to strike a fearful chord of familiarity in all of us.

What was supposed to be a carefree holiday at a place made for fun quickly turned into a catastrophe that has torn apart three families in the worst way possible. These families will never be the same, and the witnesses of the incident will now have to live with the trauma they suffered while watching helplessly from a theme park queue.

To imagine you or your family in that situation isn’t much of a stretch — going to a place like Dreamworld on holidays is something most of us enjoy doing.

Whether this was a freak accident or a result of negligence is yet to be determined by authorities, and while speculation isn’t helpful at a time like this, it’s these questions that will play on many of our minds when it comes to planning our next holiday.

Almost two million people visit the park every year, meaning plenty of us would have been thinking about our own experience on Thunder River Rapids as yesterday’s tragedy unfolded. Dreamworld is just one of those places that’s part of the standard Aussie family holiday.

For many of us this tragedy hits home, because it’s so easy to imagine ourselves in that situation. Picture: Dan Peled/AAP

My friend and colleague spent several days there during the recent school holidays and was shocked at the events when I saw her at work this morning, recounting her own fun on the ride with her kids.

My mum was due to visit Dreamworld next month with my brother and sister-in-law to indulge my nephew in some Wiggles excitement. The thought of it now makes me shudder, even though the chances are they would have had a great time without any problems.

We spent five days in Disneyland last month and went on just about every ride including the Grizzly River Run in California Adventure Park, which is almost identical to the Thunder River Rapids.

I’ll admit that I let myself think about the potential dangers of certain rides before we went, although the Grizzly River Run was so tame it wasn’t even on my radar, and once we were there I didn’t give any of it a second thought. The fun took over.

However, now that something so shocking has occurred in a place so unexpected, there is an element of “that could have been us” for so many of us, no matter how slim the chances are.

It’s that feeling that seems to stop us in our tracks when tragedy strikes. Whether it’s rethinking if it’s necessary for our kids to go on school camp, or if we really need to take that overseas flight, we find ourselves jolted from the obliviousness of our everyday lives and forced to make choices about how we let these incidents affect us in the future.

Do we start taking more precautions and make different choices to what we would have previously?

It’s human nature to avoid danger, but where do we draw the line?

Do we stop swimming at the beach? Going to major events? Driving our cars?

The answer will be different for all of us. In our case, we’ll return to Disneyland as we had planned from the minute we walked out of there.

But when we do, there’ll now be a choice to make about whether this will stop me from running excitedly towards the Grizzly River Run with my kids like we did last time. I have to be honest and say it probably will.

I realise there is probably very little logic involved in that decision. There are many rides which carry similar risks that I won’t think twice about, but it’s just one of those things that your mind can’t ignore.

However I also don’t want to teach my kids to live life in fear, so if they want to go back on, I’ll take them. It will just be with a little more anxiety and a heavier heart.