Dreamworld owner may face criminal charges over Thunder River Rapids tragedy

A coroner has referred Dreamworld owner Ardent Leisure for possible prosecution as he delivered his findings, following a six-week inquest into the tragic deaths of four people at the popular Gold Coast theme park in October 2o16.

Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild, her brother Luke Dorsett and his partner Roozi Araghi were killed when a water pump on the Thunder River Rapids ride (TRRR) malfunctioned, causing them to be tipped into the conveyor belt mechanism.

Now, more than three years after the incident,Queensland southeastern coroner James McDougall handed down his findings in a Brisbane court on Monday and delivered a scathing assessment of the ride, before revealing he would be referring Ardent Leisure to the Office of Industrial Relations (OIR).

It is now up to the OIR to decide whether to level criminal charges against the Australian-based leisure company, who also own White WaterWorld.

“It is reasonably suspected that Ardent Leisure may have committed an offence under workplace law,” McDougall said.

“Whilst various breaches of the WHS Act have previously been considered by OIR with respect to this incident, the details of which have been included in the inquest brief, given the significant further documentary material provided during the course of the coronial inquiry, and produced at inquest.”

Delivering his recommendations earlier today, McDougall also criticised the park’s “frighteningly unsophisticated systems”, and called out Dreamworld for its “systemic failure in relation to all aspects of safety”.

He went on to describe the design and construction of the ride as posing “a significant risk to the health and safety of patrons”, and said clear hazards, such as electrical faults, pump failures and the lack of an emergency stop, would have been easily identifiable to a competent person had they ever been asked to look at the ride.

McDougall also pointed out that there was no evidence to suggest that a proper engineering risk assessment had ever been carried out on the ride in the 30 years it had been operating. He added: “This failure by Dreamworld to adequately ensure the safety of the ride… was done so at the peril of Ms Goodchild, Mr Dorsett, Ms Low and Mr Araghi.”

The coroner also made several recommendations, which included changes to current regulatory frameworks for inspection of rides at theme parks and annual risk assessments to be done by professionals. McDougall also recommended that the issue of a shortfall of experienced ride engineers in Queensland be addressed.