Four killed on ride at Australia’s biggest theme park

[ucrdem]

Source: Irish Ttimes

Four people have been killed in an accident at a theme park on Australia’s east coast, officials said.

Two men and two women died while on the Thunder River Rapids ride at Dreamworld, a popular attraction on Queensland’s Gold Coast. “Dreamworld is working as quickly as possible to establish the facts around the incident,” theme park officials said in a statement, adding that they were working closely with emergency authorities and police.

“Dreamworld’s focus and priority is with the families of those involved in this tragedy and will be providing an update to the public as soon as information becomes available.”

Queensland police said they were called to the site at Coomera around 2.20pm following reports that a number of people had been injured by a conveyor belt. “Four adults have been confirmed as being deceased."

Read more: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/four-killed-on-ride-at-australia-s-biggest-theme-park-1.2842445

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Australia's Disneyland per BBC World . . .

[C Moon]

1. Sad. We do put a huge amount of trust into the construction and operators of these kinds of rides.

It always saddens me when I hear about these kinds of deaths, because they were going out to the park to enjoy their lives.

[Cha]

2. That is so sad..

Mahalo, ucr~

[sinkingfeeling]

3. It's sad. It's a terrible accident. Mechanical things can always fail

[wysi]

4. It's not clear what happened

I've been on this ride (at this park), it's quite low on the "thrill" factor.

[MissB]

5. Various articles suggest that two fell out and two were trapped

and a conveyor system was involved.

My guess is that the intertube platform went over backwards, throwing the two overboard into the channel where they likely became trapped against whatever conveyor system means.

The other two probably couldn't get out from under the tube platform and likely drowned.

[Violet_Crumble]

6. Dreamworld tragedy: ‘miracle escape’ for two children on fatal theme park ride

Two children who were in the accident at the Dreamworld theme park that killed four adults had a “miracle” escape, Queensland police said on Wednesday.

The ride on the Thunder River Rapids at the Gold Coast theme park flipped as it was travelling on a conveyor belt at the end of the water-based ride about 2pm on Tuesday. Two adults became trapped under the six-person raft and two were caught in the conveyor belt.

They have been identified as brother and sister Luke Dorsett, 35 and Kate Goodchild, 32, and Dorsett’s partner, Roozi Araghi, 38. All three are from Canberra.

The fourth woman is Cindy Low, 42, originally from Kawerau in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand, who lived in Sydney with her family. Fairfax Media reported she was on the raft with her 10-year-old son while her partner and daughter were in another raft.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/oct/26/dreamworld-accident-miracle-escape-for-two-children-on-fatal-theme-park-ride