‘It’s not your fault’ Families’ message to ride staff

THE families of Dreamworld tragedy victims Kate Goodchild and Luke Dorsett reached out yesterday to comfort the two operators on the Thunder River Rapids Ride that day.

On behalf of the families, lawyer Steven Whybrow told both Peter Nemeth and Courtney Williams: “They have asked me to tell you as far as they are concerned, they don’t consider you in anyway responsible for what happened to their loved ones.”

He made the comments on the fourth day of the inquest at the Southport Coroner’s Court into the horrific deaths of Kate Goodchild, Luke Dorsett, Roozbeh Aragahi and Cindy Low at Dreamworld.

Mr Whybrow asked Mr Nemeth during cross examination: “Since this incident happened, and I understand sir, you might have some feelings of responsibility yourself … the families I represent say it’s not your fault … has anyone from your employers said you should have done better?”

Mr Nemeth said they had not.

The 40-year-old ride operator finished giving evidence yesterday after about seven hours on the stand over two days.

Mr Nemeth said following the tragedy he had trouble sleeping. When he was interviewed by police on October 28, 2016 – three days after the tragedy – Mr Nemeth said he had not slept and his recollection of events was fuzzy.

“At that time (of the interview) I am not sure what I was thinking,” he told the inquest yesterday.

“I was working on three days of no sleep. Things became clearer as time went on.”

Defence barrister Toby Nielsen, acting for Roozbeh Araghi’s family, asked Mr Nemeth if he was sure he hit the right buttons.

“Is it possible you hit the wrong buttons in a panic,” Mr Nielsen asked.

“I can’t comment on that,” Mr Nemeth replied.

Under questioning he was unable to recall if, prior to the two rafts colliding, he made a “325” call to maintenance to report the water levels dropping before or after he shut the ride down.

“I would have done the shut down, then I would have made the 325 call and then I turned back to (ride operator) Courtney and that was when I saw the raft coming down the conveyor …” he said.

“The only thing I cannot recall doing is the shut down procedure before the 325 phone call.”

Barrister Craig Eberhardt, acting for an Ardent Leisure employee, asked Mr Nemeth why he did not call out to Ms Williams to press the emergency stop button near her when he realised his attempts had failed.

“I can’t recall,” he said. Mr Nemeth also said he did not run to the other emergency stop button when he saw the rafts about to collide.

“They were only one second away from collision,” he said.

“One second is not enough to run 10m and press a button.”

Despite having a full day’s training to become a level three operator, Mr Nemeth said he had never been warned there was a possibility the rafts could flip.

“Rafts might tip? No. Definitely not. I cannot recall that no,” Mr Nemeth said when asked.

The inquest was told on Monday that a raft had flipped during a dry run before the park opened for the day in January 2001.

At the time the incident was put down as being operator error.

As a level three operator Mr Nemeth was in charge of a mammoth list of tasks and items to look out for.

Matthew Hickey, the barrister for Ms Low’s family, listed more than 20 tasks Mr Nemeth would have needed to complete in less than a minute between rafts being launched. He also had to monitor 16 potential hazards during the ride.

The list included helping children on to the raft, checking CCTV cameras to ensure rafts were not stuck or passengers had fallen in the water, loading the ride and monitoring the queue.

Mr Nemeth agreed that it was impossible for a single person to do all the tasks in less than a minute.

“Mr Nemeth, wouldn’t it have made sense in doing that very difficult job by being provided another level three ride operator rather than a level two operator?” Mr Hickey asked.

“Yes, it would have made it easier,” Mr Nemeth replied.