TRAGEDY’S SAD LEGACY
Report recommends massive changes for theme parks
A GOVERNMENT safety audit commissioned in the wake of the Dreamworld tragedy has made sweeping recommendations that will transform the theme park industry, including a call for a new licencing system and the scrapping of older rides.
OLDER amusement rides could be decommissioned across the state and teenage amateurs banned from working theme park rides under sweeping changes to protect thrill-seekers.
An audit in the wake of the Dreamworld tragedy has found rickety, decades-old rides at school fetes and local shows aren’t being properly tested now and could be risking lives. But even state-ofthe-art rides at major tourist attractions are not being adequately checked and are being manned by people with inadequate training.
Four people died on Dreamworld’s Thunder Rapids ride in October last year in Australia’s worst theme park disaster since seven people died in Luna Park’s Ghost Train fire in 1979.
A best-practice review of the state’s workplace health and safety laws has recommended a complete overhaul of the system, including a new licensing scheme, more stringent safety audits that could see rides pulled apart and checked piece by piece and a new Public Safety Ombudsman to oversee the sector.
Its release came as Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace introduced into the Parliament a new criminal offence of industrial manslaughter.
The review found that out of 111 serious incidents on Australian rides between 2001 and 2016, “a significant number may be attributed to inadequate training or operator error”.
It says the high turnover of operators, especially for mobile amusement rides, was a major problem and the report questions why special licenses are required to drive a forklift, but not to propel hundreds of people through the air on high-risk rides.
“There is a clear need to increase the level of protection to the public by ensuring that these devices (amusement rides) are properly designed, maintained, inspected and operated,” it said.
The review compared fun parks to “major hazard facilities” that store, handle or process large amounts of dangerous chemicals, because both types of facilities carried the real risk of multiple fatalities, and said fun parks should be similarly regulated.
It said “poor mechanical integrity and lack of modern safety control measures” were a “significant concern” for older rides and that local shows and school fetes were believed to be using rides more than 30 years old.
“There is a need to mandate major inspections in the regulation to ensure that all rides, especially older ones, are maintained and undergo major inspections at prescribed intervals to ensure that they remain in a safe condition,” it said.
The audit juxtaposed the thorough examination cranes were put through with the much more for rides.
It said a major inspection should be “an examination of all critical components of the amusement device, if necessary stripping down the amusement device and removing paint, grease and corrosion to allow a thorough examination of each critical component” and undertaken by an expert engineer.
The report proposed highrisk theme parks and travelling shows should require a special licence and be subject to sixmonthly audits by specialist Workplace Health and Safety Queensland inspectors, while medium-risk operators would hold a different licence with yearly audits.
It said at lax screenings least two extra mechanical engineers would need to be appointed as specialist inspectors to administer the licensing regime and testing and additional specialist plant inspectors with engineering credentials would be needed in each regional area.
But it said consultation with industry was still needed to shape all changes required. The report also found that the number of field inspectors had “not kept pace with increases in working population in Queensland” despite being comparable with NSW and Victoria.
The review pointed out that funding had “fallen in real terms and this has seriously hampered the ability of WHSQ to perform its role and keep pace with changes in the nature of work and the modernisation of work health and safety regulation”.