Posted
The deaths of four people on Dreamworld's Thunder River Rapids ride on the Gold Coast could have been avoided with the press of an emergency button, a coronial inquest has heard.
Read more from (Australia) ABC.
It seems like the investigation is focusing on the operational failures, which are definitely huge failures, but the fact that a boat can tip over when the water level is too low seems like a huge design flaw. I wouldn't think it would even be an issue to have some shut off mechanism for low water... the transition into the conveyor simply shouldn't allow that.
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
From my experience as a ride operator, these rapids rides are dangerous. At least the one I operated. Perhaps they have since solved the problem, but raft flips seemed to happen more commonly than they should have (never in my opinion). Very surprised nobody died while I was there.
And in all cases, the e-stop would not have prevented the flip. Takes a while for the river to stop flowing.
The raft didn't flip on the river, the raft flipped on the conveyor lift because the raft that flipped hit a raft that was hung up at the top of the lift. An e-stop would have stopped the lift to prevent this from happening.
I'd rather be in my boat with a drink on the rocks, than in the drink with a boat on the rocks.
Maybe not. The way I read the previous reporting, the raft flipped because the low water level allowed it to get stuck under the conveyor.
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
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