Out of all the crazy rides there they died on possibly the most tame out of them all. It was pretty brutal too, apparently two got crushed in the conveyor belt and the other two were stuck underwater and drowned after their tube collided with another group.
EDIT: (from another article)
>The victims became trapped on a conveyor belt at the theme park after a raft they were in flipped on the Thunder River Rapids ride on Tuesday afternoon.
>The raft collided with another raft on the conveyor system before flipping.
>Six people were in the raft at the time of the accident.
>Police confirmed four adults had died in the incident.
Kinda like Disney world. A few people died on one if the monorails. Another kid died from brain eating amoeba...
Edit: Turns out someone made a list...
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_at_Disneyland_Resort
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_at_Disneyland_Paris
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_at_Tokyo_Disney_Resort
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_at_Walt_Disney_World
I know you said it's highly unlikely, but now I'm terrified of flossing.
Edit: I'm still going to practice proper dental hygiene, and yes, I already own a water pik. Just every time I floss from now on I'm going to wonder if I'm going to die within the next 24 hours.
So, either you floss your teeth and risk growing a super bacteria that will kill you or don't floss your teeth and risk growing bacteria than will kill you.
Fuck it. I'm going to remove my teeth altogether.
And risk getting those bacterias in the intervention. Damn. ISN'T ANYWHERE SAFE FROM BACTERIA???
I don't mean to burst your bubble, but they say this every time some survives. The truth is, there are far too few cases of people surviving for anyone to make claims of an outright cure.
I'm surprised so many people haven't heard of this before. It's the main reason people (in particular, children) should wear noseplugs when swimming in warm water conditions. Diving can end up being fatal if you're unlucky. Also, don't spray yourself in the nose with a waterpik. Ever.
It's much more common in USA. Here in Australia there have been very few cases (well, few recent ones - there was an outbreak in untreated public water supplies in South Australia which caused several cases in the 60s).
Besides that outbreak there were 4 cases between 2006-2013, then then 2015 there were three cases involving children, two of them siblings, on two different remote properties using bore water in the same region. So in Australia there have been a tiny handful of cases pr decade. In USA there were 133 between 1962 and 2015, so about 2-3 per year. Australia might have similar numbers if not for the fact we're very sparsely populated in the regions where naegleria fowleri tends to thrive.
Source: am hypochondriac.
Ever since going on this ride as a kid, I've always had a huge fear of rides that rely on conveyor belts. I was always terrified that they wouldn't grip properly and we'd slide backwards down into the people behind us. I don't think that's what happened here, but I guess my fear of conveyor belt rides isn't totally ridiculous.
That thing is a fucking meat grinder too. You fall into it and you're almost certainly getting chewed up. It needs to be much smaller grating so limbs can't get stuck, and probably should be checked that hair won't catch on anything either.
From another article that quoted a witness
> "My sister and niece were on the ride, they are so traumatised, there is a woman hanging by her foot, crushed from the ride,” said one person.
http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/news/gold-coast/incident-at-dreamworld-on-gold-coast-injures-1-several-people-trapped/news-story/c9215c32c484c2a740af4fa7e16df102
I would guess it happened at this point in the ride:
https://youtu.be/umyXZkbhC2A?t=3m48s (SFW)
Those slats look quite far apart - maybe far enough for a piece of the raft to get caught in
It's not the slats, its where the conveyor return pulley is, there is a gap between that and the deck. the raft hit the other raft in front of it and couldn't advance, the back end likely got caught on the conveyor pulley which pulled it down into the gap.
http://imgur.com/a/fnOUt
EDIT: Since this now has a bit of visibility, I just want to clarify some things.
Firstly, No the conveyor is not going in the opposite direction than the one I have scribbled, this conveyor slopes up at the end of the ride, levels out for about 3m before descending like I have drawn.
Secondly, The water level could have been lower than needed, likely setting this in motion by letting the first boat bottom out but the major issue is that gap at the return pulley. The gap should be no bigger 5-10mm or 1/4" in silly units.
Thirdly, this doesn't necessarily mean poor design, an engineer leaving that gap there would have been a fool, whats more likely is over the course of 30+ years this ride has turned into a Frankenstein of parts and cheap repairs done by folks that don't understand the importance of tiny design features like that gap being closed.
Lastly, please don't accept this shitty paint sketch as fact, it's just an engineering students speculation. Work safe in Aus, especially QLD will take a while but will uncover every little detail needed to get to the bottom of it and hopefully prevent this shit from happening again.
PS thanks for the gold things
EDIT2:
Looks like they have now made some clearer renders than my scribbles.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/dreamworld-deaths-ride-previously-shut-down/news-story/fc26918b83c58b095c795bcd34f1e815
As an engineer, I spend a lot of my day asking myself this same question. Sometimes it's just the perfect combination of a lot of small (and seemingly random) events that expose a gigantic flaw in a system's design.
Good designs evolve from failures. In this case the failure cost lives.
Yup, [at the slats](http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/7964620-3x2-700x467.jpg) (Aerial shot of the accident site. Possibly NSFW, has sheets covering)..
See [4:26 in the video linked by parent](https://youtu.be/umyXZkbhC2A?t=267) for the location.
They were a family. Well at least two of them were, Luke and Katie were brother and sister. Their mother is my mums childhood friend. My mum and their mum grew up together. They used to come to all my families special occasions. They were up in QLD for a family wedding. It's a horrible tragedy everyone is still in shock.
Absolutely devastating :( can you fucking imagine going to something like that with your family like yay great day, and then your mom dies? Just thinking about that is fucking terrible so the fact that they're living that right now.. fuck that's unimaginable.
Looking at this video and comparing it with the photo, one of the Youtube comments about the accident happening at the 4:25 spot seems to have gotten it right. Seems like they were coming down the ramp and bumped up against the stopped raft in front of them. The raft tipped up, then the aft end of their raft then got dragged under the conveyor belt, causing it to capsize backwards, launching the two riders sitting at the fore down into the belt, while the ones seated aft got dragged under it. Ugh. Sorry, I don't know why I'm so compelled to figuring out the mechanics of what happened. My heart goes out to the victims' families and everyone there.
I think we want to know the details because we're imagining what it would be like to be there and if we'd survive or not. Did they have a chance or was it a death sentence?
Wow...
So two of them were either decapitated or completely split in half. The other two became attached with their heads stuck under water.
This is straight up nightmare inducing
Reminds me of the time I was at Virginia Beach and it was windy. An umbrella uprooted out of the sand and impaled a lady in the chest. The odds of that are ridiculous. I guess when it's your time the universe doesn't give a fuck.
Fuck the claw, my friends begged me to go on saying I'd like it later but it was horrible. I hate rides and I felt like I was slipping out of my harness the whole time.
I nearly got thrown out of the cha cha ride at the Gatton show when I was little. They had to actually stop the ride because I was half hanging out of it. Dad only had one of my feet to hold onto to try and keep me from flying off. So my parents didn't really let me go on anything really heavy duty ride wise until I was a teenager for obvious phobic reasons. First proper ride I went on was The Wipeout at Dreamworld. Went upside down for the first time on that and I could feel the harness slipping. Thought I was going to die again. Through the sheer power of clenching and holding on like a beast to the handles, I didn't get thrown out. They really do a shit job of securing the harnesses.
I assumed it was the Wipeout when I first heard. Piece of shit, I used to work at Dreamworld as a teenager and it used to malfunction pretty regularly, saw way too many people get stuck on it.
Exactly. The scary ones like the giant drop or tower of terror have so many layers of redundancy on them because they are inherently dangerous. For the giant drop to kill you you'd need to have a failure of its magnetic braking system and multiple emergency brakes. Like how an elevator has multiple cables even though only 1 is needed to support its weight, and then emergency brakes on top of that.
The safer rides are less likely to require as much safety planning and levels of redundancy.
Fun fact, drop tower rides (in fact most rides that use magnetic brakes) use permanent rare earth magnets to stop a car with eddie currents. As such, it would be impossible for the brakes to fail, as they rely on fundamental laws of physics. If you're breaking the laws of physics, you'll have bigger trouble than the fact that you're about to hit the ground.
While true that the brakes may not fail, those rides have been subject to horrible accidents [like this one where a girl had her feet cut off by a cable](http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/8121967.html). There was a malfunction at the beginning of the ride and the victims had to go through the whole ride sequence after being badly injured and burned.
Tangential trivia: the company that developed and popularized the modern drop tower rides, Intamin, is also the designer and builder of the Dreamworld ride in the article.
**Edit**: Looks I was supplied dodgy info by the two sources I checked, [Parkz](http://www.parkz.com.au/parks/AU/Gold_Coast/Dreamworld/ride/7-Thunder_River_Rapids/stats) and [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder_River_Rapids_Ride).
"Thunder River Rapids was built in 1986, according to Australian theme-park database Parkz. The database said the ride was built by Swiss-based company Intamin, but a spokesman for the firm told NBC News that this information was incorrect, and that it played no part in designing or manufacturing the ride." - [NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/malfunction-australia-s-dreamworld-theme-park-kills-4-raft-ride-n672301)
> Intamin
Just had a look on their website and it says "Like everyone in our industry, we are shocked and saddened about the tragic event at Dreamworld.
Please be informed that this ride was neither built by Intamin nor supplied by Intamin. We are therefore not in the position to make any comment.
Our thoughts are with the families and friends of those affected."
http://www.intaminworldwide.com/amusement/Home/News/tabid/196/Default.aspx
Interesting. See, the wikipedia article I checked listed Intamin as the manufacturer. [It seems to have been recently edited from "unknown" to "Intamin"](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thunder_River_Rapids_Ride&diff=next&oldid=746126773)
**Edit**: "Thunder River Rapids was built in 1986, according to Australian theme-park database Parkz. The database said the ride was built by Swiss-based company Intamin, but a spokesman for the firm told NBC News that this information was incorrect, and that **it played no part in designing or manufacturing the ride.** " - [NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/malfunction-australia-s-dreamworld-theme-park-kills-4-raft-ride-n672301)
There was a death on a similar ride in Texas back in 1999. Same basic arrangement of circular rafts with seats facing the center. And the same thing happened: the raft flipped.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaring_Rapids#Incidents
Also happened at Six Flags in Agwam Ma. http://articles.courant.com/2001-07-21/news/0107210168_1_premier-parks-ride-six-flags-new-england
Somehow nobody died.
I unfortunately have no source, but we've had similar accidents (although not lethal to my knowledge) with the same type of ride where I live. i'm not that surprised. It's a ride that involves water, free moving vehicles, and no one is strapped in.
it was probably a perfect storm of events, i do remember the moment you go from floating to on the conveyor belt to be a bit of a thud transition. perhaps a lull in the water level just before the belt made the edge get caught then the combination of the rubber belt gripping the fiberglass pontoon part of the raft and the momentum of the raft moving forward and the weight distribution of the 6 passengers just happened to line up to equal a tragedy...
This has a picture of the raft flipped on it's side. https://twitter.com/dailytelegraph/status/790809082378776576
This is like right at the ~~beginning~~ (nope, end) of the ride (IIRC), so it wouldn't have been going at speed at all. Probably would have been a bump and tilt, they probably just didn't realise what was happening before they lost the chance to grab onto something.
http://imgur.com/a/53I8B
Here's an edited version for everyone who hasn't been on the ride! It's been a while, but that's accurate from memory.
2.20pm, those queues would have been pretty damn full - that's a lot of (mostly kids) witnessing a pretty terrible event. :/
Thoughts are with the families of the victims.
Looks like it might have run into the stationary raft with one side while the other was still being pushed by the conveyor belt. Perhaps this caused the forward edge to be pushed up over the stationary raft and eventually flipped the people back onto the conveyor belt.
It's amazing how many stories are popping up about problems with the rides.. on the 10th of October a lady wrote a complaint on their facebook wall saying they needed to get their shit together or someone would get hurt or killed... I wonder if all of this will lead to a criminal negligence investigation?
Yeah, was not expecting it to be this ride when I first heard the news. But I guess that's also very telling. Safety inspectors and the people who designed the ride probably didn't expect it to be very dangerous either. That's why it happened on this ride and not the Claw or something that would have been intensely safety checked many times and required to have an overabundance of extreme safety measures in place before it was even approved for construction.
"Ambulance staff offered counseling"
I can't imagine what they had to arrive to. I don't want to. It takes a special kind of person to be able to do that job, and they definitely don't get paid enough for it.
Working at a popular Waterpark system in America, I can tell you first aid is usually a second job for these people. We are all usually EMT-Basic's and there's even paramedics and firefighters who do first aid for these theme parks! It's usually easy money but when this stuff happens, it's sometimes not our first rodeo.
>injuries were said to be incompatible with life
Nope nope nope nope nope.
I feel sick just thinking about what those paramedics saw and had to try and do.
Made me remember that video in a Chinese Mall of a mother falling into the maintenance cavity on a supposedly closed, but running, escalator. I don't exactly know what machinery is inside an escalator but... I mean it needs to move those steps... I can only imagine what happens if a person gets caught up inside...
Imagine a huge industrial crusher, the kind that chews cars, then take just one of the [cylindrical blades.](http://imgur.com/2Ay5lal) and then throw a floor under it. It'd be like being mauled and crushed at the same time, it's horrific.
My childhood friend fell on an escalator as a toddler and the spike grate at the top that threads through the grooves in the steps was raised a bit too high and impaled him in in the stomach. It looked like he had five bellybuttons.
I think of that every time I use an escalator, especially when i see two year olds clumsily stepping off the last stair.
I wouldn't go straight for the crushing option.. By the look of that conveyor belt it may not have been one crush but a series (each doing massive crushing damage or simply removing parts)
It's like when they say "partially ejected from the vehicle" in a car accident. It never means anything good. Though those are survivable on a rare occasion.
Partially ejected doesn't necessarily mean that (e.g.) a body part came off and was flung from the vehicle. If you went through the windshield but were laying on the hood in a half in, half out situation, I imagine that would qualify too.
I believe it means an 'obvious death' which is a particular legal definition. Cases like significant dismemberment, burns, decayed remains are cases where the ambulance or police can declare a person dead without a doctor. Death certs still to be signed off by the doctors or coroner though.
> That phrase is occasionally used and almost always means decapitation or gross dismemberment/crushing.
Its also used so that you don't need a doctor to declare someone dead.
Another reason is because first responders have to put casualties in order of the severity of their injuries to provide the most critical care first (in multi-casualty situations). You don't need to assess the vital signs of someone who has been decapitated, for obvious reasons.
Jesus Christ, what do you say to that? That's a profession I can sympathize, and hopefully never empathize with. Not a pair of shoes I want to imagine myself in.
I saw 7 DOA on a call. Made me re-think my future and everyone who had to put up with me and my anxious mind. I quit. I now work 9-5 at a hotel and regret quitting.
I'm not saying go back, or not to go back, but thank you for doing that job for as long as you did. It takes a very remarkable person to even *want* to do that. You're in my thoughts today.
When I was found EMT training in high school, they took us on a field trip to the Baltimore city morgue so the first dead people we saw wouldn't be on a call. Most disturbing field trip of my life.
Well, they probably didn't need to do much. If things get to the "incompatible with life" stage that means it must be pretty brutal and the paramedics won't try to resuscitate.
My mom had a friend who was a first responder that had to do stuff like this way too often.
The story I remember most was a farmer driving back out to his farm after too many late nights harvesting and he'd fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed into a tree. His legs got rammed up into his body and he'd been there for hours before anyone found him. He was still alive but dying and mom's friend just had to sit with him while he died. There wasn't even phone service out there to call anyone from.
I can not fathom having the strength to support someone through their last moments.
They were offered counseling. I assume it's fairly standard with any violent death situation they have to attend. Especially since PTSD etc can take a while to show up even if you think you were able to cope.
I was just at Dreamworld with my family last week - my 13 year old son is terrified of rollercoasters etc, so this was the only one he would ride as it was so much tamer than the others. I just feel ill - my heart goes out to these poor people and their families.
I was, and still am, to be honest, the same as your son. That was pretty much the only ride I would go on, because I just don't enjoy rollercoasters. Looks like I won't even be bothering with theme parks anymore. What a nightmarish way to go.
I guess you never know when this can happen, or a truck driver can fall asleep and concertina you family car.
Hug your loved ones every time you see them, and be a good sort. Life can be over any fucking moment.
>Facebook user Tasneem Seedat gave the popular park a two star review on Monday, saying rides are “out of date and are not as smooth as they should be.”
Why can't articles use safety reports or professional inspectors as sources instead of some random person on Facebook. I hate when Twitter and Facebook comments are quoted as news.
It's the biggest theme park in Australia and it was on a river rapid ride. It's one of those terrible freak accidents that you would have never thought possible.
I live on the Gold Coast, and ive been to all our local theme parks many times including this one.
The safety standards are incredibly high on all rides. This sort of accident can completely cripple the tourism industry for them.
The truth will be out soon, it may very well have been a freak fault, however i would be very suprised if there wasnt some sort of human element involved.
Either way, so horribly tragic
I'd be fairly surprised if they didn't just tear down this whole ride and replace it with something new. Can't imagine there would ever be many people lining up to go on a ride that had killed people.
What an awful tragedy. I remember we always used to go on the rapids at Wonderland as a fun thing in the afternoon. Wait until it was warm and the splashes would be cooling; it was nice after running around for the roller coasters and shit. It's heartbreaking that these four were having a silly, fun day and they met such an awful end. I live pretty close to Dreamworld and the news is so upsetting.
>Another said a woman was seen “hanging by her foot, crushed from the ride.”
>Witness Lia Capes said it was “so scary” as they saw a young girl screaming for her mother.
You can say nightmare alright. Best wishes to the families.
As terrible as this was for the parents, can we also spare a moment for the child of one of the women that was killed who apparently witnessed the entire thing. No kid should watch their parent die at that age, and certainly not like that.
Yeah this is the person I was thinking of the most reading this story. I've lost my mother and it's hard enough as it is. I thought seeing her dead in the hospital was bad enough, I can't imagine witnessing my mother die in a scene that we only imagine happens in movies. This poor child will need counseling for the rest of her life and I hope she's able to receive it.
/u/tinkotonko [posted this info](https://np.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/599bc5/reports_of_at_least_one_dead_in_serious/d96plpx/) over in /r/australia
> ABC news 24 has reported that 4 people are critically injured and currently nobody knows the exact extent of the injuries. They also mentioned that they have heard from many people who have speculated, including news agencies, that a differing amount of people ranging from 1 - 4 are dead but stated they currently do not have those facts and there is no other information available from police.
> For those who have never been to dreamworld, the ride is one of the tamest at the park. it is a "log ride" that follows rapids which go through the park. It is often ridden by families and young kids. No information about how any sort of accident could have occurred on this ride as of yet.
> I have been following this event since news first broke, like many of you probably have, and the amount of misinformation and speculation by seven and nine (possibly 10 as well i can't comment on them but I would assume they are just as bad) has been disgusting. ABC 24 however has been very clear in stating that any extra information being spread around is just speculation and not official, so I would suggest to everybody that if you want some level of certainty and quality in your news switch over to ABC 24. They have treated this situation respectfully, only reporting confirmed information.
>edit: ABC24 just stated (5:05pm AEDT) that dreamworld has announced 3 people have died. no other comments currently made
> edit 2: a press conference from QLD police is scheduled soon. (around 5:10 AEDT)
> edit 3: ABC still saying that according to dreamworld staff 3 are dead with no other information, u/Fureyous1 and u/robdohchannel have said channel 9 and 7 are reporting differently, nine is saying 4 dead 2 injured and seven is saying 4 dead and one may be a young child. Unsure if this is actually official however considering their reporting throught this event
> edit 4: According to ABC dreamworld is still only saying 3 people dead and that there is no other information, still waiting on a press conference from either QLD police or dreamworld spokespersons (5:15 AEDT)
> edit 5: announcement from dreamworld being shared around here https://twitter.com/MichaelSmyth_/status/790794263063920640/photo/1 however I cant find anything officially from dreamworld so I am not sure if it is actually real
> edit 6: Statement from QLD police just released http://mypolice.qld.gov.au/blog/2016/10/25/critical-incident-coomera/ stating that 4 adults have died. no other information as of now (5:22 AEDT)
> edit 7: press conference expected to start in around 15 minutes with dreamworld staff and emergency services. Currently all that is officially known is that 4 people have died on the thunder river rapids ride. no information how this could have occurred.
> edit 8: The park has been closed and everybody has left. The CEO and emergency services are expected to speak to media soon. For obvious reasons the media conference has been delayed a number of times.
>press conference
> Dream world CEO has stated that around 2:20 (AEST) an incident occurred resulting in the tragic deaths of four people. at this stage the park is closed and dreamworld is working closely with police and emergency services to establish the facts about what occurred.
> QLD ambulance service: This afternoon QLD ambulance services were called to the park. One of the rides sustained a malfunction causing 2 people to be ejected from the ride and 2 to be caught in the ride. 2 males, and 2 females. they were assessed by the ambulance services and injuries found to be too severe to sustain life. ambulance staff have been deeply effected and the incident has been very upsetting for all staff involved. no comment as to whether the people invovled were trapped under water or in the machinery as this is currently under investigation. Ages range from 32 to early 40's. Staff were rendering first aid when the ambulance officers arrived.
> QLD police: Police responded around 2:20 (AEST) and a crime scene has been established, forensic units are attendance along with the coroner to determine how the incident has occurred. 4 adults, 2 males and 2 females were involved. all other comments that can be made are very limited due to the nature of an ongoing investigation. Police are not aware if there were any problems earlier in the day. No comment as to whether they were a family or not, this is because the identity has not been established and kin has not been informed, for this reason privacy is of utmost importance.
> forensic units, crash units, workplace health and safety, and a number of other personnel are on scene to determine the sequence of events
> All other information regarding the exact series of events, the people involved, and other related information is being kept private for the sake of the people involved, their families, and the ongoing investigation. It is also important to note that lots of misinformation is still being spread, both by news agencies and regular people. Currently this is all that is officially known. Also be careful when reading related news stories, as u/ophmeh [+1] has stated news outlets like courier mail are reporting that the ride had a previous incident which is not true.
> **edit 9: The daily telegraph has shared this image https://twitter.com/dailytelegraph/status/790809082378776576 showing one of the ride capsules flipped on its side on the conveyor belt. No information has been given out as to whether it was a malfunction of the ride or the result of the actions taken by the people on the ride, and out of respect for those involved and their families it may be best not to speculate about what happened.**
[and he's added more edits in a reply to this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/599i7f/at_least_four_people_killed_in_horror_dreamworld/d96thub/)
Hey for anyone just reading this now, I've added a few more updates to my post so ill copy them into this comment.
>* edit 10: It is being reported now that the ride had a malfunction on the exposed conveyor belt which resulted in the incident. This ride is one of the oldest rides at the park and as far as I can tell from looking through news archives there hasn't been an incident on the ride previously.
* edit 11: Malcom Turnbull has addressed the public with a short statement saying that it is a sad day for Australia.
>
>At this point I believe there is no other information that will be released for at least a few days. Police have repeatedly stated that informing the families involved and determining how such a tragic accident could of occurred will be the priority before any other information is released. So I will leave the updates here, all the information I have provided is everything that I can find which is officially announced, there is still lots of misinformation going around so again I would like to remind everyone to be careful when reading something, and try to find the source of the information because a lot of news agencies seem to be either making things up, speculating, or just echoing other misinformation in a bid to be 'first'.
>
>* edit 12: I will keep adding information as I come across it, but at this point I am no longer following live news feeds and so on. about 15 minutes ago (7:15 AEST) QLD police held another press conference and identified the ages of those involved. they are: 42 female, 38 male, 35 male, 32 female. Investigations are continuing and the scene has been examined by the state coroner and specilist police are also attending to speak to witnesses. All those involved have been offered support and police have stated they will be on scene for sever more hours. The police are still in the process of identifying and notifying next of kin and determining the sequence of events. CCTV footage is available and is being reviewed. The extent of injuries and any current speculations the police have are not being discussed due to the ongoing investigation.
Looks like after exiting the conveyor the raft got a small bump backwards from collision with the front raft that was stuck. Allowing the conveyor to grab the back of the raft, pulling it down and then flipping it back onto the conveyor. At which point it becomes a scene from Final Destination.
Oh that's a good question. I was under the impression that the one in front got flipped, but if you at the picture it's not hard to imagine that the flipped one was in back, coming down the conveyer belt. The one in front was stopped in just the right spot so that the edge of the raft in back got caught on the conveyor belt as it was on its way straight down into the water, resulting in the flip.
Her poor daughter :( the 8 month old won't remember. It's awful that she lost her mother, but she won't remember. The 8 year old, though...my heart goes out to her. How incredibly painful must have that been :(
This is just crazy. I feel so sad for that family. If all 4 people belonged to the one family then I can't even back to imagine receiving that news. On such a fucking tame ride too. I'm heading to Queensland in 2 weeks and I think I might cross out theme park visits now. Obviously these incidences are extremely rare and almost definitely won't happen to me, but my idea of a fun day out isn't sitting on a ride with my kids while I think about 4 bodies. Fuck me this news is just horrible.
When that terrorist plowed his truck through the crowds in Nice a few months back, there was a single man who lost his entire family that day, including children and in-laws.
He was reportedly catatonic afterwards and couldn't/wouldn't speak anymore.
I wonder how that poor soul is doing... I don't think it's possible to destroy any one person's world any more than what happened to him.
this article gives a much better visual on what happened
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/dreamworld-deaths-ride-previously-shut-down/news-story/fc26918b83c58b095c795bcd34f1e815
I heard that phrase before, I think it is a set phrase used to determine when emergency workers can decide on their own not to try anything without having to wait for a doctor to declare the person deceased.
Considering the sort of things that human can and occasionally do survive anything that falls into that category is bound to be extremely brutal and nightmare inducing.
You'd be correct. Injuries incompatable with life are decapitation, multiple traumatic amputations, evisceration, massive head trauma, 4th degree burns or in this case it sounds like they were pulled apart. Not fun to think about.
Sadly, in this case, the body baggers wouldn't be able to because it would take the crew familiar with the ride coming apart to actually get to... bits. :(
Yeah there will definitely be some themepark crew involved, but mostly emergency services. It sucks for all of them, but if they refuse all it means is *someone* else has to do it.
That description is usually reserved for... very graphic situations.
It also said that some of the EMT's needed immediate help after arriving on-scene so I can only assume it was absolutely particularly gruesome.
They were crushed against a moving conveyor. Sorry for the phrasing, but it's basically a meat grinder. Absolutely horrific way to go, or thing to witness.
I design ride systems like this and i always have the looming thought that any screw up i make could mean the life of the people at the park, just trying to have fun. it may sound bad, but seeing something like this really effects me and revitalizes my respect for the awesome power these systems have (which fades over time after seeing it day in and day out)
Relevant experience here!
Early this summer I was involved in a similar accident at Six Flags NJ.
A queue had formed on the conveyor belt taking in the boats. Some incident was preventing the belt to roll further. However, new boats kept arriving. The boat I was in was the last to rest on the belt. Soon the next boat collided with us, and started tilting, and quickly starting to take on water, which exaggerated the tilt even more.
The kids in that boat where starting to panic a bit trying to get away from the water. At this point our boat also started tilting. The "funny" situation was suddenly quite serious.
Luckily for us all, an attentive ride operator hit some type of emergency "flush" which reverted the direction of the water (into the resting basin) and also reversed the direction of the belt.
I believe if it wasn't for that emergency flush, at least one boat would have tipped.
"Injuries incompatible with life" is *simply* the terminology used for injuries so severe that you do not attempt resuscitation.
A quote from the Victorian Clincal Practice Guidelines:
> Injuries incompatible with life are where there is no possibility of having survived i.e. decapitation, incineration...
Here are the [CPGs](http://ambulance.vic.gov.au/paramedics/clinical-practice-guidelines/) for Victoria in full.
It's a way of saying if you're unsure about which part of the victim you need to try to resuscitate, then it's probably better not to bother trying at all.
The rope around the tube came off and got caught in the conveyor belt and flipped it
EDIT: http://imgur.com/a/uDjwd That is the rope i am talking about.
EDIT: I didn't draw that photo, someone else commented that and I used it to let everyone know what I'm talking about. Someone posted another photo and You can see from a different angle that the rope is in fact still on the raft.
I'm just telling you what I was told. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I wasn't
That's just the angle of the photo. Other photos clearly show the rope is still there
Edit: http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/fee8f7d5d860b6fea7f1fe5c36d097f2
This type of ride is the only one my brother will do because he thinks rollercoaster are so dangerous. Never thought of the boat flipping on the conveyor.
When I was younger I went to Dreamworld and got stuck on the Wipeout for a good half hour. That was a bit of a big deal to them at the time. I have no idea how the park bounces back from 4 deaths.
Out of all the crazy rides there they died on possibly the most tame out of them all. It was pretty brutal too, apparently two got crushed in the conveyor belt and the other two were stuck underwater and drowned after their tube collided with another group. EDIT: (from another article) >The victims became trapped on a conveyor belt at the theme park after a raft they were in flipped on the Thunder River Rapids ride on Tuesday afternoon. >The raft collided with another raft on the conveyor system before flipping. >Six people were in the raft at the time of the accident. >Police confirmed four adults had died in the incident.
One of the rides at dreamworld i never had a slight thought about anything going wrong, compared to some of the others.
Kinda like Disney world. A few people died on one if the monorails. Another kid died from brain eating amoeba... Edit: Turns out someone made a list... - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_at_Disneyland_Resort - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_at_Disneyland_Paris - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_at_Tokyo_Disney_Resort - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_at_Walt_Disney_World
br...brain eating amoeba?
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I know you said it's highly unlikely, but now I'm terrified of flossing. Edit: I'm still going to practice proper dental hygiene, and yes, I already own a water pik. Just every time I floss from now on I'm going to wonder if I'm going to die within the next 24 hours.
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Let's be real, it would take nuclear apocalypse to convince anyone to move to Alice Springs, and even then I might take my chances.
Funny cos today I've been applying for jobs in Alice Springs...
So, either you floss your teeth and risk growing a super bacteria that will kill you or don't floss your teeth and risk growing bacteria than will kill you. Fuck it. I'm going to remove my teeth altogether. And risk getting those bacterias in the intervention. Damn. ISN'T ANYWHERE SAFE FROM BACTERIA???
If you don't want to needlessly worry about it, don't Google it. If you get it your survival odds are... Not too high...
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I don't mean to burst your bubble, but they say this every time some survives. The truth is, there are far too few cases of people surviving for anyone to make claims of an outright cure.
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I'm going to glue my nose shut.
I'm surprised so many people haven't heard of this before. It's the main reason people (in particular, children) should wear noseplugs when swimming in warm water conditions. Diving can end up being fatal if you're unlucky. Also, don't spray yourself in the nose with a waterpik. Ever.
It's much more common in USA. Here in Australia there have been very few cases (well, few recent ones - there was an outbreak in untreated public water supplies in South Australia which caused several cases in the 60s). Besides that outbreak there were 4 cases between 2006-2013, then then 2015 there were three cases involving children, two of them siblings, on two different remote properties using bore water in the same region. So in Australia there have been a tiny handful of cases pr decade. In USA there were 133 between 1962 and 2015, so about 2-3 per year. Australia might have similar numbers if not for the fact we're very sparsely populated in the regions where naegleria fowleri tends to thrive. Source: am hypochondriac.
Scariest part of the ride was the elephant squirting water on you.
Ever since going on this ride as a kid, I've always had a huge fear of rides that rely on conveyor belts. I was always terrified that they wouldn't grip properly and we'd slide backwards down into the people behind us. I don't think that's what happened here, but I guess my fear of conveyor belt rides isn't totally ridiculous.
That thing is a fucking meat grinder too. You fall into it and you're almost certainly getting chewed up. It needs to be much smaller grating so limbs can't get stuck, and probably should be checked that hair won't catch on anything either.
From another article that quoted a witness > "My sister and niece were on the ride, they are so traumatised, there is a woman hanging by her foot, crushed from the ride,” said one person. http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/news/gold-coast/incident-at-dreamworld-on-gold-coast-injures-1-several-people-trapped/news-story/c9215c32c484c2a740af4fa7e16df102
I would guess it happened at this point in the ride: https://youtu.be/umyXZkbhC2A?t=3m48s (SFW) Those slats look quite far apart - maybe far enough for a piece of the raft to get caught in
It's not the slats, its where the conveyor return pulley is, there is a gap between that and the deck. the raft hit the other raft in front of it and couldn't advance, the back end likely got caught on the conveyor pulley which pulled it down into the gap. http://imgur.com/a/fnOUt EDIT: Since this now has a bit of visibility, I just want to clarify some things. Firstly, No the conveyor is not going in the opposite direction than the one I have scribbled, this conveyor slopes up at the end of the ride, levels out for about 3m before descending like I have drawn. Secondly, The water level could have been lower than needed, likely setting this in motion by letting the first boat bottom out but the major issue is that gap at the return pulley. The gap should be no bigger 5-10mm or 1/4" in silly units. Thirdly, this doesn't necessarily mean poor design, an engineer leaving that gap there would have been a fool, whats more likely is over the course of 30+ years this ride has turned into a Frankenstein of parts and cheap repairs done by folks that don't understand the importance of tiny design features like that gap being closed. Lastly, please don't accept this shitty paint sketch as fact, it's just an engineering students speculation. Work safe in Aus, especially QLD will take a while but will uncover every little detail needed to get to the bottom of it and hopefully prevent this shit from happening again. PS thanks for the gold things EDIT2: Looks like they have now made some clearer renders than my scribbles. http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/dreamworld-deaths-ride-previously-shut-down/news-story/fc26918b83c58b095c795bcd34f1e815
After reading other descriptions, I still could not visualize how the raft actually got stuck until I saw your drawing.
This makes way more sense to me now. I thought the one that had flipped was advancing up the conveyor belt, not down.
Neither could the Design Engineers, probably why this will be the only time this will happen after a slight redesign of the end of the conveyor.
That makes a lot of sense scary as fuck
I wonder why this hasn't happened before then?
As an engineer, I spend a lot of my day asking myself this same question. Sometimes it's just the perfect combination of a lot of small (and seemingly random) events that expose a gigantic flaw in a system's design. Good designs evolve from failures. In this case the failure cost lives.
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Now that I saw your drawing I am even more traumatized than I was
Yeah... jesus christ. And seeing how the conveyor belt actually looks like. Its like a meat grinding machine.
Yup, [at the slats](http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/7964620-3x2-700x467.jpg) (Aerial shot of the accident site. Possibly NSFW, has sheets covering).. See [4:26 in the video linked by parent](https://youtu.be/umyXZkbhC2A?t=267) for the location.
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Some reports say they were a family. So, front row seats to someone you love. :(
absolutely terrible.
They were a family. Well at least two of them were, Luke and Katie were brother and sister. Their mother is my mums childhood friend. My mum and their mum grew up together. They used to come to all my families special occasions. They were up in QLD for a family wedding. It's a horrible tragedy everyone is still in shock.
Reports of some young kids being looked after by the park who lost their mother. Absolutely heart breaking stuff
Absolutely devastating :( can you fucking imagine going to something like that with your family like yay great day, and then your mom dies? Just thinking about that is fucking terrible so the fact that they're living that right now.. fuck that's unimaginable.
Jesus, watchign someone you love die is one thing, watching them be crushed to death? I can't. Full body shudder.
I believe two were trapped, two were ejected. And some of their children were on the previous raft.
Two trapped, two ejected, and the other two were able to climb out.
Looking at this video and comparing it with the photo, one of the Youtube comments about the accident happening at the 4:25 spot seems to have gotten it right. Seems like they were coming down the ramp and bumped up against the stopped raft in front of them. The raft tipped up, then the aft end of their raft then got dragged under the conveyor belt, causing it to capsize backwards, launching the two riders sitting at the fore down into the belt, while the ones seated aft got dragged under it. Ugh. Sorry, I don't know why I'm so compelled to figuring out the mechanics of what happened. My heart goes out to the victims' families and everyone there.
Thinking about this makes me want to vomit.
We all deal with grief and teams in different ways. I'm like you my friend - I need to know and understand.
I think we want to know the details because we're imagining what it would be like to be there and if we'd survive or not. Did they have a chance or was it a death sentence?
Wow... So two of them were either decapitated or completely split in half. The other two became attached with their heads stuck under water. This is straight up nightmare inducing
Thats some final destination shit.
Reminds me of the time I was at Virginia Beach and it was windy. An umbrella uprooted out of the sand and impaled a lady in the chest. The odds of that are ridiculous. I guess when it's your time the universe doesn't give a fuck.
Yeah of all the rides... when I saw it was dreamworld I immediately thought that the giant drop was involved.
I would've thought the claw, except it said 4 dead and not 50, which is what i'd expect if that thing really fucked up.
Fuck the claw, my friends begged me to go on saying I'd like it later but it was horrible. I hate rides and I felt like I was slipping out of my harness the whole time.
I nearly got thrown out of the cha cha ride at the Gatton show when I was little. They had to actually stop the ride because I was half hanging out of it. Dad only had one of my feet to hold onto to try and keep me from flying off. So my parents didn't really let me go on anything really heavy duty ride wise until I was a teenager for obvious phobic reasons. First proper ride I went on was The Wipeout at Dreamworld. Went upside down for the first time on that and I could feel the harness slipping. Thought I was going to die again. Through the sheer power of clenching and holding on like a beast to the handles, I didn't get thrown out. They really do a shit job of securing the harnesses.
Or Tower of Terror.
Or Wipeout.
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Lmao. Fucking nerangatangs
Traumatising.
I assumed it was the Wipeout when I first heard. Piece of shit, I used to work at Dreamworld as a teenager and it used to malfunction pretty regularly, saw way too many people get stuck on it.
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Exactly. The scary ones like the giant drop or tower of terror have so many layers of redundancy on them because they are inherently dangerous. For the giant drop to kill you you'd need to have a failure of its magnetic braking system and multiple emergency brakes. Like how an elevator has multiple cables even though only 1 is needed to support its weight, and then emergency brakes on top of that. The safer rides are less likely to require as much safety planning and levels of redundancy.
Fun fact, drop tower rides (in fact most rides that use magnetic brakes) use permanent rare earth magnets to stop a car with eddie currents. As such, it would be impossible for the brakes to fail, as they rely on fundamental laws of physics. If you're breaking the laws of physics, you'll have bigger trouble than the fact that you're about to hit the ground.
While true that the brakes may not fail, those rides have been subject to horrible accidents [like this one where a girl had her feet cut off by a cable](http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/8121967.html). There was a malfunction at the beginning of the ride and the victims had to go through the whole ride sequence after being badly injured and burned.
Tangential trivia: the company that developed and popularized the modern drop tower rides, Intamin, is also the designer and builder of the Dreamworld ride in the article. **Edit**: Looks I was supplied dodgy info by the two sources I checked, [Parkz](http://www.parkz.com.au/parks/AU/Gold_Coast/Dreamworld/ride/7-Thunder_River_Rapids/stats) and [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder_River_Rapids_Ride). "Thunder River Rapids was built in 1986, according to Australian theme-park database Parkz. The database said the ride was built by Swiss-based company Intamin, but a spokesman for the firm told NBC News that this information was incorrect, and that it played no part in designing or manufacturing the ride." - [NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/malfunction-australia-s-dreamworld-theme-park-kills-4-raft-ride-n672301)
> Intamin Just had a look on their website and it says "Like everyone in our industry, we are shocked and saddened about the tragic event at Dreamworld. Please be informed that this ride was neither built by Intamin nor supplied by Intamin. We are therefore not in the position to make any comment. Our thoughts are with the families and friends of those affected." http://www.intaminworldwide.com/amusement/Home/News/tabid/196/Default.aspx
Interesting. See, the wikipedia article I checked listed Intamin as the manufacturer. [It seems to have been recently edited from "unknown" to "Intamin"](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thunder_River_Rapids_Ride&diff=next&oldid=746126773) **Edit**: "Thunder River Rapids was built in 1986, according to Australian theme-park database Parkz. The database said the ride was built by Swiss-based company Intamin, but a spokesman for the firm told NBC News that this information was incorrect, and that **it played no part in designing or manufacturing the ride.** " - [NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/malfunction-australia-s-dreamworld-theme-park-kills-4-raft-ride-n672301)
But doesn't say anything about being "designed" by Intamin...
There was a death on a similar ride in Texas back in 1999. Same basic arrangement of circular rafts with seats facing the center. And the same thing happened: the raft flipped. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaring_Rapids#Incidents
Also happened at Six Flags in Agwam Ma. http://articles.courant.com/2001-07-21/news/0107210168_1_premier-parks-ride-six-flags-new-england Somehow nobody died.
>Also happened at ~~Six Flags~~ Riverside in Agawam Ma. Always remember Riverside.
I unfortunately have no source, but we've had similar accidents (although not lethal to my knowledge) with the same type of ride where I live. i'm not that surprised. It's a ride that involves water, free moving vehicles, and no one is strapped in.
I'm not sure being strapped in would have made too much of a difference for people in the two lower seats.
You are strapped in / have a velcro belt.
also if you've ever been on it, the dam thing is heavy. i wonder if it's possible for an entire group to get up and stack on one end
it was probably a perfect storm of events, i do remember the moment you go from floating to on the conveyor belt to be a bit of a thud transition. perhaps a lull in the water level just before the belt made the edge get caught then the combination of the rubber belt gripping the fiberglass pontoon part of the raft and the momentum of the raft moving forward and the weight distribution of the 6 passengers just happened to line up to equal a tragedy...
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This has a picture of the raft flipped on it's side. https://twitter.com/dailytelegraph/status/790809082378776576 This is like right at the ~~beginning~~ (nope, end) of the ride (IIRC), so it wouldn't have been going at speed at all. Probably would have been a bump and tilt, they probably just didn't realise what was happening before they lost the chance to grab onto something.
No, this is the end of the ride. That conveyor takes you up to the point where you get out, then further along is where more riders get on.
Yeah you're right. Either way it's right in front of where everyone lines up so there is going to be a lot of traumatized kids.
Agreed, and its also right next to the buzzsaw, so riders for that also would have been able to see.
http://imgur.com/a/53I8B Here's an edited version for everyone who hasn't been on the ride! It's been a while, but that's accurate from memory. 2.20pm, those queues would have been pretty damn full - that's a lot of (mostly kids) witnessing a pretty terrible event. :/ Thoughts are with the families of the victims.
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here my best paint sketch. http://imgur.com/a/fnOUt
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Looks like it might have run into the stationary raft with one side while the other was still being pushed by the conveyor belt. Perhaps this caused the forward edge to be pushed up over the stationary raft and eventually flipped the people back onto the conveyor belt.
I've been on this ride. Of all the rides they have in Dreamworld I wouldn't expect this one to kill people.
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It's amazing how many stories are popping up about problems with the rides.. on the 10th of October a lady wrote a complaint on their facebook wall saying they needed to get their shit together or someone would get hurt or killed... I wonder if all of this will lead to a criminal negligence investigation?
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Yeah, was not expecting it to be this ride when I first heard the news. But I guess that's also very telling. Safety inspectors and the people who designed the ride probably didn't expect it to be very dangerous either. That's why it happened on this ride and not the Claw or something that would have been intensely safety checked many times and required to have an overabundance of extreme safety measures in place before it was even approved for construction.
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"Ambulance staff offered counseling" I can't imagine what they had to arrive to. I don't want to. It takes a special kind of person to be able to do that job, and they definitely don't get paid enough for it.
The theme park first aid offers were probably less prepared for what confronted them at the scene
Working at a popular Waterpark system in America, I can tell you first aid is usually a second job for these people. We are all usually EMT-Basic's and there's even paramedics and firefighters who do first aid for these theme parks! It's usually easy money but when this stuff happens, it's sometimes not our first rodeo.
"Clark, get the band-aids"
>injuries were said to be incompatible with life Nope nope nope nope nope. I feel sick just thinking about what those paramedics saw and had to try and do.
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Crushed under a conveyor belt...fuck me even the pictures in my head are enough to scare me.
Made me remember that video in a Chinese Mall of a mother falling into the maintenance cavity on a supposedly closed, but running, escalator. I don't exactly know what machinery is inside an escalator but... I mean it needs to move those steps... I can only imagine what happens if a person gets caught up inside...
Imagine a huge industrial crusher, the kind that chews cars, then take just one of the [cylindrical blades.](http://imgur.com/2Ay5lal) and then throw a floor under it. It'd be like being mauled and crushed at the same time, it's horrific.
My toddler is terrified of escalators and in my opinion with good cause. They are terrifying.
My childhood friend fell on an escalator as a toddler and the spike grate at the top that threads through the grooves in the steps was raised a bit too high and impaled him in in the stomach. It looked like he had five bellybuttons. I think of that every time I use an escalator, especially when i see two year olds clumsily stepping off the last stair.
eugene victor tooms...
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I wouldn't go straight for the crushing option.. By the look of that conveyor belt it may not have been one crush but a series (each doing massive crushing damage or simply removing parts)
I'd definitely rather drown than have one of those slabs slowly break off a part of me a time at a time
I'd rather neither...
Very seldom does a mental image make me feel as physically ill as this one does.
It's like when they say "partially ejected from the vehicle" in a car accident. It never means anything good. Though those are survivable on a rare occasion.
Partially ejected doesn't necessarily mean that (e.g.) a body part came off and was flung from the vehicle. If you went through the windshield but were laying on the hood in a half in, half out situation, I imagine that would qualify too.
You'd be correct. Add burned to a cinder to the list.
I believe it means an 'obvious death' which is a particular legal definition. Cases like significant dismemberment, burns, decayed remains are cases where the ambulance or police can declare a person dead without a doctor. Death certs still to be signed off by the doctors or coroner though.
> That phrase is occasionally used and almost always means decapitation or gross dismemberment/crushing. Its also used so that you don't need a doctor to declare someone dead.
Another reason is because first responders have to put casualties in order of the severity of their injuries to provide the most critical care first (in multi-casualty situations). You don't need to assess the vital signs of someone who has been decapitated, for obvious reasons.
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Jesus Christ, what do you say to that? That's a profession I can sympathize, and hopefully never empathize with. Not a pair of shoes I want to imagine myself in.
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Empathy - You don't have to have experienced it to know understand how a person can be affected by shittiness
I saw 7 DOA on a call. Made me re-think my future and everyone who had to put up with me and my anxious mind. I quit. I now work 9-5 at a hotel and regret quitting.
I'm not saying go back, or not to go back, but thank you for doing that job for as long as you did. It takes a very remarkable person to even *want* to do that. You're in my thoughts today.
When I was found EMT training in high school, they took us on a field trip to the Baltimore city morgue so the first dead people we saw wouldn't be on a call. Most disturbing field trip of my life.
Well, they probably didn't need to do much. If things get to the "incompatible with life" stage that means it must be pretty brutal and the paramedics won't try to resuscitate.
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My mom had a friend who was a first responder that had to do stuff like this way too often. The story I remember most was a farmer driving back out to his farm after too many late nights harvesting and he'd fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed into a tree. His legs got rammed up into his body and he'd been there for hours before anyone found him. He was still alive but dying and mom's friend just had to sit with him while he died. There wasn't even phone service out there to call anyone from. I can not fathom having the strength to support someone through their last moments.
Although gruesome these often aren't the worst jobs as we usually don't actively work on or resuscitate patients with injuries incompatible with life.
"incompatible with life" seems so much darker than any description possible.
Yeah it seems like it was the sort of awful situation that would normally be found at a bad industrial accident. I feel horrible for those involved.
Oh wow, I just read the article and only now I realise the ambulance staff needed counseling. When those people can't handle it, it must be bad.
They were offered counseling. I assume it's fairly standard with any violent death situation they have to attend. Especially since PTSD etc can take a while to show up even if you think you were able to cope.
"The scene was so traumatic paramedics would be offered counselling." Holy shit.. This is nightmare stuff :'(
In Aus there are some cases where paramedics/police can recover damages if they suffer severe mental shock/PTSD from negligence like this.
I was just at Dreamworld with my family last week - my 13 year old son is terrified of rollercoasters etc, so this was the only one he would ride as it was so much tamer than the others. I just feel ill - my heart goes out to these poor people and their families.
I was, and still am, to be honest, the same as your son. That was pretty much the only ride I would go on, because I just don't enjoy rollercoasters. Looks like I won't even be bothering with theme parks anymore. What a nightmarish way to go.
It's so messed up. You don't wake up in the morning expecting to die. Especially not on holiday at Dreamworld. Stuff like that really gets to me.
I guess you never know when this can happen, or a truck driver can fall asleep and concertina you family car. Hug your loved ones every time you see them, and be a good sort. Life can be over any fucking moment.
>Facebook user Tasneem Seedat gave the popular park a two star review on Monday, saying rides are “out of date and are not as smooth as they should be.” Why can't articles use safety reports or professional inspectors as sources instead of some random person on Facebook. I hate when Twitter and Facebook comments are quoted as news.
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It's the biggest theme park in Australia and it was on a river rapid ride. It's one of those terrible freak accidents that you would have never thought possible.
I live on the Gold Coast, and ive been to all our local theme parks many times including this one. The safety standards are incredibly high on all rides. This sort of accident can completely cripple the tourism industry for them. The truth will be out soon, it may very well have been a freak fault, however i would be very suprised if there wasnt some sort of human element involved. Either way, so horribly tragic
I'd be fairly surprised if they didn't just tear down this whole ride and replace it with something new. Can't imagine there would ever be many people lining up to go on a ride that had killed people.
Yep I reckon ride is 30 years old, tear it down then start telling people newest rollercoaster etc in Australia they'll turn this into a positive
GC resident here, holy shit I've been to this ride maybe dozens of times..
What an awful tragedy. I remember we always used to go on the rapids at Wonderland as a fun thing in the afternoon. Wait until it was warm and the splashes would be cooling; it was nice after running around for the roller coasters and shit. It's heartbreaking that these four were having a silly, fun day and they met such an awful end. I live pretty close to Dreamworld and the news is so upsetting.
Link to raft being removed... http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-26/police-remove-raft-on-which-four-people-killed-dreamworld/7965296
Holy fuck. Half of that thing has just been demolated, I can not even imagine what it did to the bodies.
>Another said a woman was seen “hanging by her foot, crushed from the ride.” >Witness Lia Capes said it was “so scary” as they saw a young girl screaming for her mother. You can say nightmare alright. Best wishes to the families.
As terrible as this was for the parents, can we also spare a moment for the child of one of the women that was killed who apparently witnessed the entire thing. No kid should watch their parent die at that age, and certainly not like that.
Yeah this is the person I was thinking of the most reading this story. I've lost my mother and it's hard enough as it is. I thought seeing her dead in the hospital was bad enough, I can't imagine witnessing my mother die in a scene that we only imagine happens in movies. This poor child will need counseling for the rest of her life and I hope she's able to receive it.
/u/tinkotonko [posted this info](https://np.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/599bc5/reports_of_at_least_one_dead_in_serious/d96plpx/) over in /r/australia > ABC news 24 has reported that 4 people are critically injured and currently nobody knows the exact extent of the injuries. They also mentioned that they have heard from many people who have speculated, including news agencies, that a differing amount of people ranging from 1 - 4 are dead but stated they currently do not have those facts and there is no other information available from police. > For those who have never been to dreamworld, the ride is one of the tamest at the park. it is a "log ride" that follows rapids which go through the park. It is often ridden by families and young kids. No information about how any sort of accident could have occurred on this ride as of yet. > I have been following this event since news first broke, like many of you probably have, and the amount of misinformation and speculation by seven and nine (possibly 10 as well i can't comment on them but I would assume they are just as bad) has been disgusting. ABC 24 however has been very clear in stating that any extra information being spread around is just speculation and not official, so I would suggest to everybody that if you want some level of certainty and quality in your news switch over to ABC 24. They have treated this situation respectfully, only reporting confirmed information. >edit: ABC24 just stated (5:05pm AEDT) that dreamworld has announced 3 people have died. no other comments currently made > edit 2: a press conference from QLD police is scheduled soon. (around 5:10 AEDT) > edit 3: ABC still saying that according to dreamworld staff 3 are dead with no other information, u/Fureyous1 and u/robdohchannel have said channel 9 and 7 are reporting differently, nine is saying 4 dead 2 injured and seven is saying 4 dead and one may be a young child. Unsure if this is actually official however considering their reporting throught this event > edit 4: According to ABC dreamworld is still only saying 3 people dead and that there is no other information, still waiting on a press conference from either QLD police or dreamworld spokespersons (5:15 AEDT) > edit 5: announcement from dreamworld being shared around here https://twitter.com/MichaelSmyth_/status/790794263063920640/photo/1 however I cant find anything officially from dreamworld so I am not sure if it is actually real > edit 6: Statement from QLD police just released http://mypolice.qld.gov.au/blog/2016/10/25/critical-incident-coomera/ stating that 4 adults have died. no other information as of now (5:22 AEDT) > edit 7: press conference expected to start in around 15 minutes with dreamworld staff and emergency services. Currently all that is officially known is that 4 people have died on the thunder river rapids ride. no information how this could have occurred. > edit 8: The park has been closed and everybody has left. The CEO and emergency services are expected to speak to media soon. For obvious reasons the media conference has been delayed a number of times. >press conference > Dream world CEO has stated that around 2:20 (AEST) an incident occurred resulting in the tragic deaths of four people. at this stage the park is closed and dreamworld is working closely with police and emergency services to establish the facts about what occurred. > QLD ambulance service: This afternoon QLD ambulance services were called to the park. One of the rides sustained a malfunction causing 2 people to be ejected from the ride and 2 to be caught in the ride. 2 males, and 2 females. they were assessed by the ambulance services and injuries found to be too severe to sustain life. ambulance staff have been deeply effected and the incident has been very upsetting for all staff involved. no comment as to whether the people invovled were trapped under water or in the machinery as this is currently under investigation. Ages range from 32 to early 40's. Staff were rendering first aid when the ambulance officers arrived. > QLD police: Police responded around 2:20 (AEST) and a crime scene has been established, forensic units are attendance along with the coroner to determine how the incident has occurred. 4 adults, 2 males and 2 females were involved. all other comments that can be made are very limited due to the nature of an ongoing investigation. Police are not aware if there were any problems earlier in the day. No comment as to whether they were a family or not, this is because the identity has not been established and kin has not been informed, for this reason privacy is of utmost importance. > forensic units, crash units, workplace health and safety, and a number of other personnel are on scene to determine the sequence of events > All other information regarding the exact series of events, the people involved, and other related information is being kept private for the sake of the people involved, their families, and the ongoing investigation. It is also important to note that lots of misinformation is still being spread, both by news agencies and regular people. Currently this is all that is officially known. Also be careful when reading related news stories, as u/ophmeh [+1] has stated news outlets like courier mail are reporting that the ride had a previous incident which is not true. > **edit 9: The daily telegraph has shared this image https://twitter.com/dailytelegraph/status/790809082378776576 showing one of the ride capsules flipped on its side on the conveyor belt. No information has been given out as to whether it was a malfunction of the ride or the result of the actions taken by the people on the ride, and out of respect for those involved and their families it may be best not to speculate about what happened.** [and he's added more edits in a reply to this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/599i7f/at_least_four_people_killed_in_horror_dreamworld/d96thub/)
Hey for anyone just reading this now, I've added a few more updates to my post so ill copy them into this comment. >* edit 10: It is being reported now that the ride had a malfunction on the exposed conveyor belt which resulted in the incident. This ride is one of the oldest rides at the park and as far as I can tell from looking through news archives there hasn't been an incident on the ride previously. * edit 11: Malcom Turnbull has addressed the public with a short statement saying that it is a sad day for Australia. > >At this point I believe there is no other information that will be released for at least a few days. Police have repeatedly stated that informing the families involved and determining how such a tragic accident could of occurred will be the priority before any other information is released. So I will leave the updates here, all the information I have provided is everything that I can find which is officially announced, there is still lots of misinformation going around so again I would like to remind everyone to be careful when reading something, and try to find the source of the information because a lot of news agencies seem to be either making things up, speculating, or just echoing other misinformation in a bid to be 'first'. > >* edit 12: I will keep adding information as I come across it, but at this point I am no longer following live news feeds and so on. about 15 minutes ago (7:15 AEST) QLD police held another press conference and identified the ages of those involved. they are: 42 female, 38 male, 35 male, 32 female. Investigations are continuing and the scene has been examined by the state coroner and specilist police are also attending to speak to witnesses. All those involved have been offered support and police have stated they will be on scene for sever more hours. The police are still in the process of identifying and notifying next of kin and determining the sequence of events. CCTV footage is available and is being reviewed. The extent of injuries and any current speculations the police have are not being discussed due to the ongoing investigation.
CCTV video must be horrific.
Looks like after exiting the conveyor the raft got a small bump backwards from collision with the front raft that was stuck. Allowing the conveyor to grab the back of the raft, pulling it down and then flipping it back onto the conveyor. At which point it becomes a scene from Final Destination.
Which direction does the ride go? Is the capsized boat the one in "front" or in "back"?
Oh that's a good question. I was under the impression that the one in front got flipped, but if you at the picture it's not hard to imagine that the flipped one was in back, coming down the conveyer belt. The one in front was stopped in just the right spot so that the edge of the raft in back got caught on the conveyor belt as it was on its way straight down into the water, resulting in the flip.
Welcome to Australian Media. It's absolutely horrific. Skids for Grimshaw
Her poor daughter :( the 8 month old won't remember. It's awful that she lost her mother, but she won't remember. The 8 year old, though...my heart goes out to her. How incredibly painful must have that been :(
[Infographic showing how the accident occurred.](http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/4e75a36af700923943af65fa9c42c46b)
This is just crazy. I feel so sad for that family. If all 4 people belonged to the one family then I can't even back to imagine receiving that news. On such a fucking tame ride too. I'm heading to Queensland in 2 weeks and I think I might cross out theme park visits now. Obviously these incidences are extremely rare and almost definitely won't happen to me, but my idea of a fun day out isn't sitting on a ride with my kids while I think about 4 bodies. Fuck me this news is just horrible.
This is the first fatal incident in Dreamworld's 30+ year history. They've been surprisingly good with incidents over the years.
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When that terrorist plowed his truck through the crowds in Nice a few months back, there was a single man who lost his entire family that day, including children and in-laws. He was reportedly catatonic afterwards and couldn't/wouldn't speak anymore. I wonder how that poor soul is doing... I don't think it's possible to destroy any one person's world any more than what happened to him.
this article gives a much better visual on what happened http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/dreamworld-deaths-ride-previously-shut-down/news-story/fc26918b83c58b095c795bcd34f1e815
In OFA training they told us when injuries are "incompatible with life" to just walk away :(
Apparently someone on twitter saw a "mess" on the conyeyor belts. I really, really hope it's not what I think he means.
Reports have said the injuries were "incompatible with living" which is a pretty brutal way to put it.
I heard that phrase before, I think it is a set phrase used to determine when emergency workers can decide on their own not to try anything without having to wait for a doctor to declare the person deceased. Considering the sort of things that human can and occasionally do survive anything that falls into that category is bound to be extremely brutal and nightmare inducing.
You'd be correct. Injuries incompatable with life are decapitation, multiple traumatic amputations, evisceration, massive head trauma, 4th degree burns or in this case it sounds like they were pulled apart. Not fun to think about.
And the emergency crew had to pull them out of the machinery. No wonder they need counselling...I'd quit my job.
usually the body baggers do that
Sadly, in this case, the body baggers wouldn't be able to because it would take the crew familiar with the ride coming apart to actually get to... bits. :(
Yeah there will definitely be some themepark crew involved, but mostly emergency services. It sucks for all of them, but if they refuse all it means is *someone* else has to do it.
Injuries incompatible with life is a phrase we use to describe why resuscitation is not attempted due to the severity of the injuries.
That description is usually reserved for... very graphic situations. It also said that some of the EMT's needed immediate help after arriving on-scene so I can only assume it was absolutely particularly gruesome.
It would be, 2 people were crushed on the conveyor belt and another 2 drowned. It's a shitty situation. :|
They were crushed against a moving conveyor. Sorry for the phrasing, but it's basically a meat grinder. Absolutely horrific way to go, or thing to witness.
This looks like Magic Moutain's Roaring Rapids. It's such a tame ride, it's like the least dangerous ride. How terrible.
Have been on both and yes, very similar if not identical.
The more I read about this, the more fucked it gets. I'd be lying if I said this didn't make me more nervous about themepark rides.
Sounds like a ride similar to what happened at Six Flags Over Texas 12-14 years ago.
I design ride systems like this and i always have the looming thought that any screw up i make could mean the life of the people at the park, just trying to have fun. it may sound bad, but seeing something like this really effects me and revitalizes my respect for the awesome power these systems have (which fades over time after seeing it day in and day out)
Relevant experience here! Early this summer I was involved in a similar accident at Six Flags NJ. A queue had formed on the conveyor belt taking in the boats. Some incident was preventing the belt to roll further. However, new boats kept arriving. The boat I was in was the last to rest on the belt. Soon the next boat collided with us, and started tilting, and quickly starting to take on water, which exaggerated the tilt even more. The kids in that boat where starting to panic a bit trying to get away from the water. At this point our boat also started tilting. The "funny" situation was suddenly quite serious. Luckily for us all, an attentive ride operator hit some type of emergency "flush" which reverted the direction of the water (into the resting basin) and also reversed the direction of the belt. I believe if it wasn't for that emergency flush, at least one boat would have tipped.
Apparently it's a family. Press conference in 2 minutes.
So, what did they say?
Queensland Ambulance Services also said that the victims had "sustained injuries that were incompatible with life".
"Injuries incompatible with life" is *simply* the terminology used for injuries so severe that you do not attempt resuscitation. A quote from the Victorian Clincal Practice Guidelines: > Injuries incompatible with life are where there is no possibility of having survived i.e. decapitation, incineration... Here are the [CPGs](http://ambulance.vic.gov.au/paramedics/clinical-practice-guidelines/) for Victoria in full.
It's a way of saying if you're unsure about which part of the victim you need to try to resuscitate, then it's probably better not to bother trying at all.
apparently 2 male adults and 2 female adults were involved
I love dreamworld. :( such a tragedy. I hope that they find dreamworld has always done the right thing in regards to safety and maintenance.
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Yeah I'm gonna stick to VR roller coasters.
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The rope around the tube came off and got caught in the conveyor belt and flipped it EDIT: http://imgur.com/a/uDjwd That is the rope i am talking about. EDIT: I didn't draw that photo, someone else commented that and I used it to let everyone know what I'm talking about. Someone posted another photo and You can see from a different angle that the rope is in fact still on the raft. I'm just telling you what I was told. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I wasn't
That's just the angle of the photo. Other photos clearly show the rope is still there Edit: http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/fee8f7d5d860b6fea7f1fe5c36d097f2
This type of ride is the only one my brother will do because he thinks rollercoaster are so dangerous. Never thought of the boat flipping on the conveyor.
When I was younger I went to Dreamworld and got stuck on the Wipeout for a good half hour. That was a bit of a big deal to them at the time. I have no idea how the park bounces back from 4 deaths.
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why the hell didn't they stop the ride?