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Accident At Dreamworld Australia!

Re: ACCIDENT At Dreamworld Australia!

I assume that there was an issue with the stacking system that Tilien highlighted. A boat stacked to early for the exit which meant the next boat did not have enough space to fully fall off of the conveyor, resulting in the conveyor tipping the boat and ejecting the occupants. Obviously this may not be the case as it would mean a significant flaw in the design in terms of the pointless stacking of the boats in the station which I doubt would have been overlooked in the design (considering they've run safely for 30 odd years)
 
Re: ACCIDENT At Dreamworld Australia!

Makes sense, TilenB.

There was a boat at the disembarking platform, one after it having just come off the lift, and the raft that overturned would have been on the last section of the lift which would, presumably, stop until the mechanism that holds the boat at the disembarking platform was released. This must be a planned-for situation, given the random nature of a rapids ride.

Looks like the lift didn't stop this time.
 
Re: ACCIDENT At Dreamworld Australia!

Wikipedia suggests that the standard Intamin rotating station was "decommissioned due to safety concerns".

Oh dear.

So it may not have been quite 30 years of operation like this. I hear from other industry types that the ride has been quite heavily modified over the years too. The big velcro seat belts will obviously divide opinion but I can't really fault that. The end of the above video is interesting though. There is clearly an operator dedicated to managing station arrivals (remain seated, etc) and I can't quite see if there's an E-stop which would, of course, be a serious oversight.
 
Re: ACCIDENT At Dreamworld Australia!

Reports now coming in that a mum and three of her friends were on the raft, and her two children saw it all happen as they waited at the exit ramp with their father.

Report from Courier Mail

I can't even... :(
 
Oh my god, this is awful! How does something like this happen? Thoughts to everyone involved.

Sent from my VS820 using Tapatalk
 
Re: ACCIDENT At Dreamworld Australia!

So just to clarify, as we are looking at the pictures of the the incident, the flipped boat is on the portion of the conveyor belt that draws boats down into the station?

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The only Rapids Ride I have ridden that involved stacking at the end of the ride was White Water Canyon at Kings Island. Boats stack at the bottom of the conveyor lift, and are gradually drawn up as capacity allows for the turn table station at the top. The video below illustrates some of that stacking behavior:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNL3F2UbzAg[/youtube]

As you can see, heavy bumpers help slow down and control the boats approach at the bottom of the conveyor, making it very difficult for any type of tipping action. However, for a boat to tip at the top, as Chris Brown pointed out, would most likely mean a boat lowering on top of another boat. In theory though, ride ops and sensors would be able to control the conveyor belt and account for enough clearance for each boat as it returns back to the station.
 
Re: ACCIDENT At Dreamworld Australia!

This isn't the first time these type of rides have done this. I forget where, but it has happened before. I believe it happened at BGW. Can't exactly remember if it resulted in a fatality, but I believe it did. That's been a long time ago. I remember Loch Ness Monster had a crash. A tree fell on the track and the train slammed into it. Luckily, only minor injuries.
 
Re: ACCIDENT At Dreamworld Australia!

^Yeah, passengers had just departed the raft in the unloading area at the top of the conveyor belt. That empty raft got stuck, but the conveyor belt did not stop. The next raft was then pushed by the conveyor belt up onto the stuck empty raft. The conveyor belt continued to grab onto the trailing raft pushing the rear of the raft down, causing it to flip over. Two of the riders were flung from the raft and died, the other two were crushed under the raft and drowned.
There were two children on the raft who were injured and taken to hospital. Their condition is unknown at this time, but their mother was supposedly one of the people crushed and drowned.
The likely reason for the empty raft getting stuck was due to the water level. Apparently it is a know issue that rafts on this ride get stuck when the water level is too low. Why the conveyor belt did not stop is one of the issues being investigated. It could have been a mechanical problem or a failure to e-stop the ride or both.
 
Re: ACCIDENT At Dreamworld Australia!

Thank you ECG. Perfect explanation.

Still can't get over this terrible accident.

What I would like to know is as we now know Intamin aren't the manufacturer, who is??
 
Re: ACCIDENT At Dreamworld Australia!

its just so heart breaking for all involved - such a sad needless waste of life

While as enthusiasts we are skeptical and critical of how the media jump on theme park accidents particularly in the UK post the Smiler crash, the bottom line is 4 people went to a theme park for a days fun and never came home having lost their lives in horrible circumstances.

Yes accidents happen every day but there is something about it happening in a place where people go specifically to have fun which makes park accidents seem worse, which I guess is why the media latch onto it.

So tragic for the families of those involved
 
Re: ACCIDENT At Dreamworld Australia!

Intamin's name is being batted around, so they've put out a message that they had nothing to do with this one
Click to expand...

Good to know! Many likely got misguided as international news stations said "Intamin was unavailable for a statement".

The ride boats - and as it looks only the boats - were made by http://www.masterglass.com.au/project/theme-parks/. So it seems the rest of the ride was built by the park itself?
 
Re: ACCIDENT At Dreamworld Australia!

Re-opening on Friday 28 October? Quicker turnaround than Alton Towers after The Smiler.

Still, it's just small rides and animal-related stuff with the gate proceeds going to the Australian Red Cross, which is - better(?) - and it's being named as a "Memorial Re-Opening".

Can't see many people attending other than relatives who want some closure, or rubbernecking gawkers who want to try and see where it all happened.

One thing I noticed - unlike at Alton Towers, there weren't a lot of films/photos of the incident uploaded to social media that I came across.

Not sure what to think about this, especially when there are a few too many "I saw loads of Health & Safety issues and no-one took any notice" posts on Facebook and elsewhere.
 
Re: ACCIDENT At Dreamworld Australia!

Could the missing laterals on the lift have anything to do with dragging the raft under? If you have a look at a photo of it, there's at least space for two missing lateral beams on the lift, meaning the gap between them is absolutely huge, easily enough to then 'grab' the raft and drag it under - part of me questions of this would have happened if all laterals were installed, as surely the gap between them wouldn't be enough to hook on to the raft?
 
Re: ACCIDENT At Dreamworld Australia!

CoastinBear said:
One thing I noticed - unlike at Alton Towers, there weren't a lot of films/photos of the incident uploaded to social media that I came across.
Click to expand...
I have a theory about this after spending many years observing people at theme parks. Most people at theme parks do not take photos, or get their phone out, around water rides. Perhaps it's a fear of getting it wet or dropping it in the water. I think the main reason is because most (I said most, not all!) water rides don't look that impressive, appear tame and have a reduced sharability compared to a coaster on social media. With the Smiler, it was inevitable that scores of people around the ride would be taking photos at the time of the accident because it's a rollercoaster, it's photogenic and is cool to share. Also, when people take photos of a rollercoaster, they are taking photos of the coaster (bear with me!). When people take photos of water rides, it's usually the people in the "private" boat who are the focus, so people wait until they see their friends or family before readying their camera. Next time you're at a park, take a moment to see how many people are snapping and sharing a rollercoaster/thrill ride compared to a water ride.

Of course this theory might not apply in this instance. Australians could have more respect for those involved than the Brits.
 
Re: ACCIDENT At Dreamworld Australia!

Lofty said:
Could the missing laterals on the lift have anything to do with dragging the raft under? If you have a look at a photo of it, there's at least space for two missing lateral beams on the lift, meaning the gap between them is absolutely huge, easily enough to then 'grab' the raft and drag it under - part of me questions of this would have happened if all laterals were installed, as surely the gap between them wouldn't be enough to hook on to the raft?
Click to expand...

That was my first thought. I'd have thought that the two who were thrown out of the ride, as opposed to the two that got trapped under it, would have survived also if it was a solid ramp, rather than something you could fall into.
 
^^ Another theory might be that the part of coaster where Smiler's incident happened is more open to the general view than this, where only people in the station could get a good view of what had happened. Plus this should've been much more of a disconcerting sight than the Smiler incident (with all due respect to the girls who lost their legs - which was probably more down to the fact they didn't get immidiate medical attention than to the severity of the crash...).
 
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