As more details surrounding the horrific accident that’s claimed the lives of four people from the same family – two men and and two women – at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast emerge, questions are being raised as to the safety of the ride itself.
The QLD Ambulance Service earlier confirmed the incident occurred after a“malfunction” on the Thunder River Rapids, a family ride that sends tubes down rapids at speeds of up to 45 km/h, caused one of the cars to flip over a large conveyor belt.
Now it’s been revealed the ride was due to shut down for scheduled “annual maintenance” on Tuesday, October 25 – the day of the accident – and reopen six days later once it’d been given the green light by engineers.
Here’s a screenshot from the Dreamworld website:
The text has since disappeared, replaced with a message that reads: “dates currently not available”.
Theme park patrons spoke of problems with the ride earlier that day, according to reports.
“We were waiting there for about half an hour and engineers had to come,” a woman told Nine News. “They drained all the water out and then had to refill it back up, and then we were allowed to go. But, yeah, we were stuck there for about 30-40 minutes at least.”
When asked about the alleged issues with the ride at a press conference, a police spokesman remained vague.
“I’m not aware, but that will be part of the investigation and that will be one of the aspects we will be looking at,” he said.
PEDESTRIAN.TV contacted the theme park for comment, and was told by a spokesperson that the text was an “automated message”.
“This was an automated message on the website, which appeared as a result of the ride being closed down immediately after the incident,” read the email statement.
The spokesperson also claimed the ride’s annual safety audit, conducted by independent workplace health and safety engineers, was “undertaken three days ago and a certification was issued.”
We’ve requested a copy of the certification.
Photo: 9News.
