Speculation and media beat ups - Thunder River Rapids incident

[Tim Dasco]

If DW had of announced that they plan to open the ride in the future, I don't think the media would care. They are to busy covering the USA election to care.

[red dragin]

My thought is that it will physically remain until the completion of the inquest, as sites visits can occur in the process. 

After that, clear it and move forward. I don't expect another water ride to go back in its place. 

As theme park fans, we should keep on dreamworld about the cottage and it's preservation though. 

[Jamberoo Fan]

8 minutes ago, diesal11 said:

Dreamworld wrote the statement, Ardent published it.
Ardent have public shareholders to answer too, Shareholders hate uncertainty so Ardent have to make statements about the situation. For the most part they've just been releasing Dreamworlds Media statements to them.

An external media communications company wrote the statement. Whilst the statement is labelled with Dreamworld's logo, the statement itself mainly refers to quotes from Ardent Leisure's CEO and like you said Ardent Leisure have been releasing them because they are share price sensitive. 

For all we know, DW might have preferred keeping the ride but Ardent Leisure overruled them. It's not the first time that's happened in big business.

9 minutes ago, diesal11 said:

Making any decisions based on Media reaction would be silly. They've never done it before to my knowledge, why start now?

Because the situation is rare and could easily influence the future of the theme park and it's owner for the worst.

[Richard]

It will come out that the ride is flawed in its design and this directly contributed to the incident. There is no way was ever reopening once the cause was determined and I have no doubts that experts had it 90% figured out within hours. Retrofitting with new technology to address its design flaws is an interesting idea but when you consider the stigma the ride will carry with it forever, where's the possible return on this kind of huge investment?

I'm not speculating on what specific confluence of events led to the incident, but this decision and the announcement today is not driven by respect for the victims or relenting to negative coverage in the media. It's a decision based on the business case for the ride and Dreamworld as a whole.

Ardent and Dreamworld are one in the same since this incident took place. The company as a whole would be using every internal and external resource at their disposal when making these decisions; it's pretty pointless to point the finger at one level of the organisation as a scapegoat.

[Jamberoo Fan]

4 hours ago, Richard said:

...this decision and the announcement today is not driven by....relenting to negative coverage in the media. It's a decision based on the business case for the ride and Dreamworld as a whole.

Ardent and Dreamworld are one in the same since this incident took place. The company as a whole would be using every internal and external resource at their disposal when making these decisions; it's pretty pointless to point the finger at one level of the organisation as a scapegoat.

I might not have made this clear enough but just to point out, I wasn't exactly saying DW/Ardent Leisure did give in to the media. There might have been more to their reason to decommission the ride - I don't know. I would've preferred them detailing more reasoning but if it was just out of respect, I would've preferred them announcing it after the investigation released their conclusions.  All I was saying was that it gave the impression to me that they were giving in to the media due to the announcement's timing.

[pin142]

6 hours ago, diesal11 said:

On the positive side, perhaps we will finally get that Gold Rush refresh in the next few years. Im always keen for new rides

Goldrush got a refresh when Buzzsaw went in.

[loki75]

Apparently the safety blitz has found a minor issue at Movie World

"The tragedy prompted a month-long safety blitz on Queensland theme parks, which uncovered a “minor” safety matter at Movie World, Queensland Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace said."

"“I am advised by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland that only one minor, non-consumer safety matter has been identified to date and this was immediately rectified.” Ms Grace did not provide any further detail about the issue."

Complete article http://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/dreamworld-reopening-date-yet-to-be-announced-after-fatal-ride-decommissioned/news-story/15e36ed614a0d80708a495562ed1f5fc

Whilst I welcome anything to increase patron safety I feel for the parks as any type of incident no matter how small is going to cop a media beat up.

[Brad2912]

Non-consumer would mean back of house imo.. so an issue with a maintenance bay/transfer track or the like..

[loki75]

Exactly something that most likely would have been found and fixed with no fuss.

[diesal11]

17 hours ago, Jamberoo Fan said:

An external media communications company wrote the statement. Whilst the statement is labelled with Dreamworld's logo, the statement itself mainly refers to quotes from Ardent Leisure's CEO and like you said Ardent Leisure have been releasing them because they are share price sensitive. 

Ahhhh my bad, i had read the one released that arvo about the statement from Dreamworld CEO. i misunderstood you sorry!

11 hours ago, pin142 said:

Goldrush got a refresh when Buzzsaw went in.

Did it? Im not a regular but it still seemed mostly the same to me apart from Buzzsaw being there obviously. Even when TRR was open it seemed a bit empty to me. Maybe my memory's playing tricks with me though.

[Reanimated35]

3 hours ago, loki75 said:

Apparently the safety blitz has found a minor issue at Movie World

"The tragedy prompted a month-long safety blitz on Queensland theme parks, which uncovered a “minor” safety matter at Movie World, Queensland Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace said."

"“I am advised by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland that only one minor, non-consumer safety matter has been identified to date and this was immediately rectified.” Ms Grace did not provide any further detail about the issue."

Complete article http://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/dreamworld-reopening-date-yet-to-be-announced-after-fatal-ride-decommissioned/news-story/15e36ed614a0d80708a495562ed1f5fc

Whilst I welcome anything to increase patron safety I feel for the parks as any type of incident no matter how small is going to cop a media beat up.

 

3 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

Non-consumer would mean back of house imo.. so an issue with a maintenance bay/transfer track or the like..

It was a maintenance area at the back of one of the kids rides. No guest access. They just asked for a new handrail to be installed on a platform. The park complied. Everyone was happy. 

[Jamberoo Fan]

On 10/11/2016 at 0:04 PM, reanimated35 said:

It was a maintenance area at the back of one of the kids rides. 

Do you know if it was Pounce 'n' Bounce? That ride appeared on the maintenance page on Wednesday and it's maintenance period finishes later today.

[Brad2912]

Pounce & Bounce has no maintenance area, let alone a place to install a handrail. 

My guess would be Road Runner as it's the only kids ride with a Back of house maintenance bay

[Reanimated35]

8 minutes ago, Jamberoo Fan said:

Do you know if it was Pounce 'n' Bounce? That ride appeared on the maintenance page on Wednesday and it's maintenance period finishes later today.

Not sure sorry, but I would assume RR or maybe something to do with the service area for the driving school

 

[Jamberoo Fan]

So I gather it is probably just a coincidence?

[Reanimated35]

Given they spoke about a non-consumer area, and it being a handrail on a maintenance platform, yes, it would be a coincidence. 

[Theme Park Girl]

Just came across this media article from a week or so ago and noticed it references Parkz, as well as lots of direct quotes by @Richard and using a photo with credit. 

Wouldn't surprise me if lots of reporters have been snooping around here looking for info in the past few weeks:

http://www.afr.com/news/dreamworlds-rapids-ride-different-from-others-around-the-world-20161101-gsfd07

Edited November 12, 2016 by Theme Park Girl

[Jamberoo Fan]

42 minutes ago, Theme Park Girl said:

Wouldn't surprise me if lots of reporters have been snooping around here looking for info in the past few weeks:

The Daily Mail published this article about 20 hours after I posted the Alder Construction tender advertisement that the Gold Coast Bulletin didn't mention had the word 'hypercoaster' in it. Given it was shortly after the Thunder River Rapids incident, I assumed The Daily Mail saw my post featuring the tender advertisement/link (I thought it'd be too good to be true if they didn't) but for all I know, they might have actually did research based on the Gold Coast Bulletin article & it was all a coincidence in the end.

On 31/10/2016 at 8:19 PM, Jamberoo Fan said:

Ardent Leisure's share price on the ASX also dropped by 1% today - not a significant drop but it doesn't help as it is still getting closer to being out of their 2 year trend again.

Also, after I posted the above, Ardent Leisure's share price dropped 1% each day for another 2 days. Both were not significant drops but those drops led their share price to go out of their 2 year trend again on the 2nd day. The day after, it rose by 0.5% - taking it just back into their 2 year trend. The sharemarket calmed down again in regards to Ardent Leisure after that day and has been calm ever since but overall, their share price is still significantly lower than it was pre-incident.

Edited November 12, 2016 by Jamberoo Fan

[Tornado]

river ride is toast, eureka is history and that lame log ride should go too and they should build a magnificent coaster in it's place. they are trailing behind movie world cmon dreamworld time to catch up.

 

now i'm expecting this post to get -30 don't disappoint me!!

[Tim Dasco]

As that area is all family rides and if they need to replace it with at least 1 family ride. However DW do have 2 good family roller coasters. (MDMC and Escape from Madagascar) Yes I know I said MDMC is a good family ride. So they defiantly need a family ride to be brought in. However if they were to build a Eurofighter or @Gazza's plan that would be AWsome. As long as they then put a family ride in around BL area to make up for the TRR.

Remember a few months ago the CEO of DW was at AW. So maybe a Eurofighter is a possibility.

Edited November 12, 2016 by Tim Dasco

[Theme Park Girl]

Was looking on google earth app this arvo of the footprint of TRR. Not sure if anyone had posted it yet, but here's the amount of ground the ride covers, including the track.  

As I said earlier on, it shouldn't be too hard to fence off the Eureka/Buzzsaw side whilst removal work takes place. However the ToT side may be a bit trickier, given its length ?

[Tornado]

plenty of room there to build a nice spanking new coaster which is what DW desperately needs.

[mission]

1 hour ago, Tornado said:

plenty of room there to build a nice spanking new coaster which is what DW desperately needs.

Agree.

 

It has some good rides but it lacks a real roller coaster, Hot Wheels is average at best.

[Jamberoo Fan]

The Australian reported:

Quote

The Queensland government has blocked the public release of safety certificates for Dreamworld's deadly Thunder River Rapids ride, despite acknowledging the documents could reveal "information relating to public safety".

The state's Office of Industrial Relations has rejected a Right to Information request from The Australian seeking the two most recent annual certification, registration or audits for the Gold Coast ride...

"I am satisfied that disclosure of the plant registration certificates could reasonably be expected to reveal information relating to public safety," the Office of Industrial Relations' Alison Moffat wrote in a letter to The Australian.

"I am also mindful that the object of the Work Health and Safety Act is to prevent a person's death, injury or illness and that the information in issue relates to the registration of (a)...ride which was involved in a fatal accident.

"However, I am not satisfied that disclosure of the plant registration certificates would advance the public interest in revealing risks to public safety and that this factor favouring disclosure should be afforded only moderate weight."

She said under the WHS Act, the regulator was not allowed to disclose confidential information provided by companies, such as Dreamworld, for "registration of a design of item of plant".

The Australian intends to appeal against the ruling.

The rejection comes as the department continues safety audits of the state's theme parks.

A Dreamworld spokesperson declined to say whether the WHSQ audit had found any safety breaches, but gave a statement from Dreamworld chief executive Craig Davidson, who said "the multi-layered safety review process is under way with the relevant organisations".

Edited November 18, 2016 by Jamberoo Fan

[Santa07]

On 11/17/2016 at 3:35 PM, mission said:

Agree.

 

It has some good rides but it lacks a real roller coaster, Hot Wheels is average at best.

Since when was Hot Wheels the coaster to judge DW on? ToT and Buzzsaw are both 'real' rollercoasters too, and they're both definitely above average (quite a bit in ToT's case for me).

But yeah I agree now that MW is getting their coaster DW will be a fair bit behind.