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Thunder River Rapids Incident Coronial Inquest


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i know there was a first aid station near the fairy shop thing, which is very close, but by the sounds of Clark's testimony, he came from the WWW clinic. Even at a dead sprint thats several minutes - especially carrying trauma kits and an AED.

For the water to still be at chest height when he hit the water (hint - the trough itself isn't that deep, so chest height is practically full strength operation) it sounds very different to some of the operator testimony about how quickly the ride was stopped.

Given the guy was level 2 paramedic, he'd have a level head. I have a lot of confidence that his testimony is reliable... which does bring into question other people's statements...

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Shane Green 

First Aid Manager 

Was trained as a paramedic in 2006 and has been since then. Has been employed at Dreamworld since 2013. 

Mr Green is based in the White Water World first aid clinic and states it took around 3-5 minutes to make it to rapids after the call was made. Once Mr Green arrived onsite, he administered aid for as long as he could. Mr Green stated that there would always be 2 first aid officers on so there could be one based in each clinic. White Water World Lifeguards are also called upon to assist with first aid when required. 

When Mr Green for arrived at Dreamworld, he believed the medical equipment was seriously lacking but was provided with the correct equipment once he requested it. 

Mr Green doesn’t believe there was any medical equipment or leading surgeons in the world that would be able to assist or save the lives of the victims. 

When asked if Mr Green believes equipment could be provided to assist in getting people out of the Thunder River Rapids troughs, he responded that it is difficult because every situation is different. Mr Green also stated that the troughs are impossible to navigate due to slime buildup underwater so he was slipping and falling over while trying to help. Mr Green doesn’t recall the rapid ride alarm sounding, he only remembers hearing a “Code 222 blue” call. 

Mr Green was asked if he can think of any ways that this whole situation could have been improved. He responded saying no, in this particular case, there is very little more that we could have done. 

When asked if everything was adequate to deal with that situation, Mr Green advised that it was but there was nothing more that could be done.

We have just adjourned for lunch 

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Hey guys, I left the court during lunch as the aircon wasn't working and it's expected that Mr Green will take up the rest of the afternoon. A lot of the conversations and questions with Mr Green are just a rehash of what was said earlier by Mr Clark so I took the opportunity to leave. I do still have someone at the hearing so I'll provide any major updates if anything new or big gets said.

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Further update: When Mr Clark and Mr Green arrived at the scene and were administering first aid, they were only aware of 3 patients. There was still a 4th underwater that wasn't revealed until the water levels had completely dropped. CPR was being performed on one female patient on the unload platform by Mr Clark, two males were in the water around the conveyor area and were unable to be helped and the 4th person was trapped underwater and discovered once the water had drained from the station. Mr Clark mentioned many times that the water was very murky and that he couldn't see the bottom of the troughs. Mr Green had also mentioned many times about the slime on the troughs that made it impossible to stand or walk on without slipping.

Also, I'd like to add that Mr Clark and Mr Green are both trained paramedics so they are coping extremely well given what they have witnessed and were involved in.

Also todays google doc link: https://tinyurl.com/Wednesday-inquest

Edited by Jdude95
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Mr Clark later clarified that the conveyor was stopped when he arrived at the unload platform to jump in. He was one of the first people onsite as he was in the gold rush first aid clinic so the distance from there, down the fastpass line striaght to the unload platform is pretty quick. It isn’t clear whether the pump was still running when he jumped in but I’d say it was still in the process of draining because he wasn’t in the main trough, he was in the water area near the conveyor and station turntable. 

The water was so dirty from the nature of the incident and the natural dirtiness of the water since it isn’t exactly cleaned. I believe the 4th person was trapped under something which is why it was harder to notice in all the panic and until the water was fairly low. I can explain this in a lot more detail but I’d rather not in a public forum as those details are the ones covered by the NPO. Happy to privately gore with you though @joz ;) 

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2 hours ago, Jdude95 said:

The water was so dirty from the nature of the incident and the natural dirtiness of the water since it isn’t exactly cleaned. I believe the 4th person was trapped under something which is why it was harder to notice in all the panic and until the water was fairly low. I can explain this in a lot more detail but I’d rather not in a public forum as those details are the ones covered by the NPO. Happy to privately gore with you though @joz ;) 

Terrible to think that he entered water dirty from the nature of the incident. Yes it's the job to respond and make all attempts to save life, but that was incredibly brave. 

The testimony today includes guests assisting in first aid. Are they to be called upon to provide testimony, or will statements they've made to Police suffice?

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4 hours ago, Jdude95 said:

The water was so dirty from the nature of the incident and the natural dirtiness of the water since it isn’t exactly cleaned. I believe the 4th person was trapped under something which is why it was harder to notice in all the panic and until the water was fairly low. I can explain this in a lot more detail but I’d rather not in a public forum as those details are the ones covered by the NPO. Happy to privately gore with you though @joz ;) 

Did they go over those details today ? would like to know more if they did.  obviously not on public forum but privately @Jdude95

Edited by Cryptic Hatter
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15 hours ago, joz said:

Any indication of at what point the pumps were turned off and how long it takes for water to drain from that area? Seems extraordinary that 5 mins after it happened the water level hadn't dropped enough to find everyone.

Speaking from Wonderland knowledge, which should, but may not be the same - the unload point at the end of the conveyor is right next to the pumps. If the pumps were given a power disconnect, water stops flowing within seconds.

As the highest point on the ride, the water level should drop RAPIDLY. Most of the pump flow is directed away from the load zone (which is why you have to walk over a bridge to get to the station - the water bypasses the station at that point), so it would be relatively safe to enter the water at the unload zone while the water level was dropping, but it should drain in less than a minute.

Based on the first aider testimony, the e-stop wasn't engaged as claimed. Even if the first aider arrived on scene 30 seconds after the radio call, from testimony so far we have in order:

  • operator presses e-stop
  • operator calls control to report emergency - assume 1-2 rings, and then 20 second conversation
  • control sees CCTV, makes the decision to upgrade from 'BLUE' to 'GREY'
  • Makes the radio call to the responding staff - assume 20 seconds radio message

We're close to a minute after the e-stop has been pressed according to the operator testimony, and allow another minute for the first aider to grab trauma kits, AED and run down the Q4U line - so two minutes to be on scene and the water is chest deep?

Here's an intamin rapids diagram:

srr1.jpg

And here's a dry station photo of the Wonderland Snowy River (during demolition)

wonderland_demolition_18%2030_08_2005_0.

 

It's clear to see the water level through the station. It is worth noting however that we know Thunder River had issues with stability in the station, and Dreamworld installed the guiderails under the surface. From pics we saw previously, the guiderails were about a foot or so high, so you can probably add another 300 to the above measurements - giving you a possible 1500 deep water at the station - which isn't much higher than chest deep to begin with, depending on how tall you are (average australian male height is about 175-180cm according to the ABS.

 

My completely uneducated viewpoint - either the e-stop didn't work, or the operator didn't press it as\when claimed.

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In the first round of the hearing, Police investigators who reviewed the CCTV footage from 2016 mentioned that none of the ride ops pressed the e-stop until much after it was too late. I believe there were already people in the water before any e-stop was hit. 

The first part of discussions that took place today were mostly between the coroners council and the Ardent Legal Team in relation to the large amount of time It took for Ardent Legal to provide all of the required documents as a majority have only been provided as recently as Monday. Some documents have also been lost due to a power outage that occurred.

The first witness has just been called. 

Ben Hicks 

Attractions and aquatics manager. 

It has come out today that there was also an incident In 2014 where two rafts collided and a woman had fallen in the water. Mr Hicks wasn’t aware of the 2014 incident. Mr Hicks mentioned that he recalls the 2001 incident but because it’s been so long, it’s hard to remember details. 

Mr Hicks was never reminded of the 2001 incident days and even weeks after the 2016 tragedy, he never thought the incidents could be related. Mr Hicks didn’t personally have access to incident reports for the rides. They were available but Mr Hicks never looked at them as he was never required to. Mr Hicks isn’t aware of any staff members who’s role it is to investigate pst incidents and learn from them. Today is the first time that Mr Hicks has seen the incident report from 2001. A lot of the information being talked about is the same as previous safety officers and ride trainers so there isn’t much new information so far.

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Upcoming maintenance and Inspections requests wouldn’t be emailed to the safety team, they would go to the attractions supervisory team who did by play a part in the safety role in the park. The discussions around extra CCTV monitoring and a simplified shutdown process took place in October 2015, a full year before the incident. These changes were never implemented. Ms Knight was shown a risk assessment form and asked if she’s ever seen one. Mr Knight cannot recall ever seeing or completing any risk assessment form. Ms Knight was shown a different style of risk assessment form and asked if she had seen it before. Ms Knight replied “no”. 

After the incident, Ms Knight never thought that there could have been a training issue with the operators. Ms Knight also wasn’t aware of any issues with the ride on the days leading up to the incident.

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