http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-25/four-people-dead-ride-at-dreamworld-gold-coast/7963880
Yep, still hate theme parks.
Hopefully someone finds the raw cctv footage of the incident happening, really interested in how it happened.
>>80714
It came down the conveyor to the disembarking area but because the water had stopped flowing, another empty raft had not been cleared and blocked the path of occupied raft and prevented it from moving away from the the conveyor. The motion of the conveyor caught/grabbed the end of the raft and dragged one side down causing the whole raft to tip vertical. Two people fell onto the conveyor where they where entangled in the mechanics of it and the other two people were hanging from the seats by the belts with their upper bodies caught underwater at the end of the conveyor...apparently. Sounds very grizzly.
Here is the conveyor in action at 3 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btmi_5bi04I
Man I've been on that ride 100 times over. Even when I was a kid I always wondered what would happen if one of those things flipped.
Now I know. Drove past the park today and there was a huge tribute for them out from. Candles, flowers and stuff. Quite sad.
>>80745
If it had flipped at any other point in the ride there wouldn't be a massive risk of death, in fact, if it didn't flip on the conveyor there's a good chance the adults would have survived but the kids could've drowned.
>>80746
The rapids themselves are pretty shallow for the most part, and a large portion of the ride is in complete darkness. So if it had flipped over elsewhere there's a good chance it would have trapped them underwater, but perhaps the current would have dislodged them.
But I guess if it were to lodge anywhere it would be on or just after the conveyor belt. Whenever you hit it there would be a juddering, but nothing severe, and the staff always made sure we were evenly spaced out to distribute weight.
>>80748
They don't need to be dislodged from anything, if you flip over you just undo your velcro strap and swim out.
>>80749
>if you flip over you just undo your velcro strap and swim out
Thing is the chairs are the highest part of the raft, and there's little gap between them to swim out off, especially if you're in pitch darkness. Not to mention there would be 5 other people all scrambling to get out of the same 2-3 narrow spots, that's assuming none of those spots are lodged against a wall or something.
Those rafts were heavy, if they were planted down it'd be tricky to get out. I'm a seasoned swimmer and I really think I'd struggle to get out of there in one piece. I guess if I had warning, a deep breath and was on my own I might be able to do it, but I think I'd be fucked any other way.
I saw a really good 3d animation of how it went down posted as a webm somewhere, anyone got it?
this park is donezo, I would sue their ass to high hell
>>80779
The park has had a history of safety issues, settling suits out of court for wounded customers and staff, and had gone so far as to hide and shut down incident reports and stats on things that had gone wrong in the park.
Now we find that an 18 yo on her first day at work, while being trained, left in charge of the emergency stop mechanism. WTF?
Poor girl. She must be distraught.
I hope that the corporate overlords don't try to hang it all on her.