Speculation and media beat ups - Thunder River Rapids incident

[razza1987]

4 hours ago, ClassifiedLlama said:

I support you

Thank you  lol

[Tim Dasco]

Channel 9 news in Perth have done a story on Adventure World. Talking about the chair lift incident that happened a few years ago.

[iwerks]

I think more than a few news outlets have been trying to link these safety concerns to other parks.

I thought the statement put out by @Mark Shaw and AW hit just the right note.

 

[joz]

****MODERATOR NOTE****

This thread contains all the media beat-up and speculation.  While every effort was made to split off the thread in a clean way that makes sense, it wasn't possible with some posts containing comments on several topics.  Here is the criteria for posts that were moved here:

* Posts which contained speculation about the cause of the accident

* Posts which contained misinformation, either from the media or from our own members

* Posts which responded to the above 2 conditions.  As much as this thread is a dumping ground for a lot of the rot, there are a few really good posts in this thread responding to poor information, as well as people reacting to the various pieces of news.  If you find your post in here, it doesn't mean that it has been deemed a 'bad' post, but it is in the same conversation, and has been moved here to make the conversation as flowing as possible.

* Some troll comments are included for context

 

Posts from before an official announcement was made by QPS have been left in their original thread.

 

If you wish to discuss issues that have not been confirmed by either QPS or some other regulatory body, or other issues that arise from, but are not directly related to the incident, this is the place.

 

Please be respectful of others and with expressing your opinions, many of the people personally affected by this tragedy will not doubt read this thread.

 

Thank you for your understanding

- Joz

Edited October 26, 2016 by joz

[Jamberoo Fan]

Here we go again...The Sydney Morning Herald:

Quote

A child got stuck by the foot, then the neck on a Dreamworld ride in the busy January 2016 school holidays, documents released by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland show.

The ride referred to is the Flowrider.

I wish someone on Parkz could find the 100+ page document from Workplace Health and Safety Queensland that is the source of all these incidents to the media. It would be an interesting read and allow us to confirm the severity of these reported incidents. Amongst other incidents already mentioned, according to The Australian, the document also does:

Quote

...reveal complaints of rust-covered rides, a passenger “ripping open” his knee on a damaged rollercoaster, several injuries to workers including dislocated shoulders and whiplash...

Back to The Sydney Morning Herald article - DW must be so over all the media inquiries they are getting about past incidents now particularly when they have to remind the media that counselling is still ongoing:

Quote

Park management said engineering staff were being counselled on Wednesday and could not provide information.

This quote from the same article is interesting (if true):

Quote

...the AWU had members who had been sacked for raising safety issues at Dreamworld.

The Sun has done an article on past DW incidents too - probably the 1st international publication to do so. Whilst pointing out they are unrelated to DW, they also mention The Smiler incident as well as roller-coaster fatalities from around the world in past years.

I'll just leave this article here.

And I'm unfamiliar with Thunder River Rapids' operational rules but could this Daily Mail article be classified as sensationalised or an actual breach of operational rules? It doesn't look like much in itself & DW might have more specific rules but DW's Thunder River Rapids webpage does clearly say maximum 6 people per ride.

At least there is one unsensationalised non-theme park media news article....

Edited October 26, 2016 by Jamberoo Fan
Added Daily Mail article

[razza1987]

45 minutes ago, Jamberoo Fan said:

Here we go again...The Sydney Morning Herald:

The ride referred to is the Flowrider.

I wish someone on Parkz could find the 100+ page document from Workplace Health and Safety Queensland that is the source of all these incidents to the media. It would be an interesting read and allow us to confirm the severity of these reported incidents. Amongst other incidents already mentioned, according to The Australian, the document also does:

Back to The Sydney Morning Herald article - DW must be so over all the media inquiries they are getting about past incidents now particularly when they have to remind the media that counselling is still ongoing:

This quote from the same article is interesting (if true):

The Sun has done an article on past DW incidents too - probably the 1st international publication to do so. Whilst pointing out they are unrelated to DW, they also mention The Smiler incident as well as roller-coaster fatalities from around the world in past years.

I'll just leave this article here.

And I'm unfamiliar with Thunder River Rapids' operational rules but could this Daily Mail article be classified as sensationalised or an actual breach of operational rules? It doesn't look like much in itself & DW might have more specific rules but DW's Thunder River Rapids webpage does clearly say maximum 6 people per ride.

At least there is one unsensationalised non-theme park media news article....

Maximum of six people on the ride? Are they speculating more rode it?

[Grad3s]

does anyone know if the park will re-open after the friday memorial?

[Grad3s]

I don't see how Anonymous believes that they have obtained a 'scheduled' maintenance update that was changed when the incident occurred... What is everyone's opinion on this? it looks like the screenshot they have has been pulled after it happened not before (like they claimed)

[Themeparkfan]

If anything I think in the long term the whole area of gold rush country will be boarded up out of view

the rest of the park will reopen with the obvious exception of buzzsaw while they figure out what to do with the ride. I speculate it either  gets bulldozed and  replaced or the whole area will possibly  get  re-themed but that could turn out to be too expensive however I can't imagine them reopening the same ride system ever again 

Edited October 26, 2016 by Themeparkfan

[Grad3s]

Yeah... It probably is time for an update of that area. I don't believe leaving the ride SBNO in the long run is the best idea because it covers such a large area of the park. EMR luckily is enclosed enough to leave SBNO but i agree the 'gold rush' theme is no longer a theme park trend

[Brad2912]

1 hour ago, Grad3s said:

I don't see how Anonymous believes that they have obtained a 'scheduled' maintenance update that was changed when the incident occurred... What is everyone's opinion on this? it looks like the screenshot they have has been pulled after it happened not before (like they claimed)

That maintenance page was updated to what you posted AFTER the accident. There was no scheduled maintenance for the ride going into the day the incident occurred 

[razza1987]

People on facebook are seriously starting to annoy me. Someone posted on a story saying "Big sue claim coming your way dreamworld". I posted saying "nothing has been proven that they have done anything wrong" and their response was "it will". Like seriously do all these keyboard warriors have access to the investigation or have seen any of the evidence? Of course not and it's seriously getting on my nerves 

[Carrie_Smattick]

http://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/investigators-seek-witness-reports-on-machinery-malfunction-at-rapids-ride-at-dreamworld/news-story/e777769020ced940ed280c0c7c608711

 

Another article on the water pump (speculation)

[razza1987]

9 minutes ago, Carrie_Smattick said:

http://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/investigators-seek-witness-reports-on-machinery-malfunction-at-rapids-ride-at-dreamworld/news-story/e777769020ced940ed280c0c7c608711

 

Another article on the water pump (speculation)

Isn't that first picture a picture of Eureka Mountain and not the River Rapids as stated?

[webslave]

Precisely how dumb are these AWU bastards?  I get that they are getting on the front foot to make enough noise to ensure the media narrative doesn't turn towards the potential failings of one or more of their members, but have they not considered that their fear-mongering and management-bashing has the very real potential to affect the popularity and therefore viability of not only Dreamworld, but that of the other parks?  Their other members rely on the continued success of the parks to sustain on-going employment.

I would suggest that their attitude is pretty on-the nose, particularly to front the media and somehow suggest they knew this was going to happen.  If we're going to line up to head-kick the media for doing their job, surely these cretins deserve worse because they should know better?

[JeffreyMoore]

For years i have been saying how upset i am that older attractions that we all grew up with have been removed from our theme parks but after this shock accident im now sort of glad the older attractions have been removed as it lessens the chance of something like this happening again 

[razza1987]

Miracles of Dreamworld tragedy - Daily Telegraph
 

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/dreamworld-deaths-unbearable-pain-of-husbands-who-saw-wives-die-at-end-of-ride/news-story/0d17361aba9b585c4c66cc02aa5cdcb6?nk=73f6515e110a5e8453f3a7ce237de1ca-1477523510

 

[zacsta_1997]

I'm also annoyed with the media too with this incident, especially channel 7 with its coverage of this. They pretty much pushed the blame onto an 18 year old girl who's first day working at dreamworld was that day, they also mentioned all the other theme parks in Australia stating that they go through daily ride maintainence and checkups before they're open to the public. Completely leaving out the fact that dreamworld does the same thing. 

Not to mention they were comparing ride quality between Luna Park Sydney and Dreamworld, which I find hilarious, due to the fact LPS had had a run with inspectors, due to unsafe rides, and even an incident that was worse than this one currently, when 7 people including children were burned alive in the ghost train fire 

the media is leaving out important information and pretty much making Dreamworld look like an unsafe park. And have the guts to say it's going to affect the Queensland tourism. It will for a little while. Then people will eventually forget about this and be back to normal. It was a freak accident. Media just needs to back off. 

[razza1987]

7 minutes ago, zacsta_1997 said:

I'm also annoyed with the media too with this incident, especially channel 7 with its coverage of this. They pretty much pushed the blame onto an 18 year old girl who's first day working at dreamworld was that day, they also mentioned all the other theme parks in Australia stating that they go through daily ride maintainence and checkups before they're open to the public. Completely leaving out the fact that dreamworld does the same thing. 

Not to mention they were comparing ride quality between Luna Park Sydney and Dreamworld, which I find hilarious, due to the fact LPS had had a run with inspectors, due to unsafe rides, and even an incident that was worse than this one currently, when 7 people including children were burned alive in the ghost train fire 

the media is leaving out important information and pretty much making Dreamworld look like an unsafe park. And have the guts to say it's going to affect the Queensland tourism. It will for a little while. Then people will eventually forget about this and be back to normal. It was a freak accident. Media just needs to back off. 

I was disgusted when I read the last article I just posted. It said one of the fathers of the victims found out about his sons death via the news

[Jessicajealousy]

9 News Gold Coast is currently livestreaming the AGM of Ardent Leisure.

[razza1987]

They just said on seven news that Dreamworld will be officially reopening on Saturday. Apparently psychologists recommended Dreamworld reopen ASAP

19 minutes ago, Jessicajealousy said:

9 News Gold Coast is currently livestreaming the AGM of Ardent Leisure.

340 million dollars lost in the companies worth in the last 48 hours. Wow that's a lot 

Edited October 27, 2016 by razza1987

[razza1987]

An interview with the grandmother of one of the children that survived is going to be on channel nine news tonight. Apparently she is going to be talking about "why she is scathing about the treatment her family have received from Dreamworld"

[elemist]

1 minute ago, razza1987 said:

An interview with the grandmother of one of the children that survived is going to be on channel nine news tonight. Apparently she is going to be talking about "why she is scathing about the treatment her family have received from Dreamworld"

With of course no financial incentive by Channel 9, and guaranteed there's no leading questions...

[AllegroCrab]

4 minutes ago, razza1987 said:

An interview with the grandmother of one of the children that survived is going to be on channel nine news tonight. Apparently she is going to be talking about "why she is scathing about the treatment her family have received from Dreamworld"

I still don't know why anyone in their right mind would go to channel 9 if they had something to say. They could manipulate the words that come out of your mouth to no end to say whatever they want you to say.

[elemist]

http://webcasting.boardroom.media/broadcast/57ccf860837ebbae11434241/58115ca65939af3a7a000c6e

Live cast of the AGM from Ardent Leisure