Dreamworld operator trained the morning four people were killed on ride
Staff at Gold Coast theme park Dreamworld, including a member who’d only been trained that morning, pushed a stop button on a ride after two rafts had already collided, a Queensland inquest has been told.
Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild, her brother Luke Dorsett and his partner Roozi Araghi all died instantly after being thrown from a raft when the Thunder River Rapids ride malfunctioned in October 2016.
On Tuesday a forensic crash investigator told a packed Southport Coroners Court the rafts had collided and two passengers had already been flung from the raft by the time a stop button was pushed on the main control panel.
An emergency stop panel at the nearby unloading dock, which would have stopped the raft conveyor belt in just two seconds, wasn’t pushed at all, the inquest heard.
Senior Constable Steven Cornish said that emergency button could have lessened the likelihood of death, even if it was pushed after the collision.
“It wouldn’t have avoided (the tragedy), it may have limited some injuries. Possibly,” Sen Const Cornish said.
The inquest has already heard testimony from lead police investigator Detective Sergeant Nicola Brown that a ride operator who was only trained that morning panicked during the tragedy and “wasn’t sure at the moment of stress which button to press”.
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