Documents ‘were blank’

AN engineering consultant who has certified rides at most of the Gold Coast’s theme parks gave a tick to the Thunder River Rapids Ride despite never having seen logbooks or maintenance reports, the inquest into the Dreamworld disaster was told.

External engineering consultant Tom Polley also never checked the emergency stop buttons on the ride met regulations or had a qualified electrician check the electrics.

Despite this, Mr Polley signed the ride off as “mechanically and structurally sound” on October 17, 2016 and issued the certificate via email on October 24, 2016 – a day before the tragedy which killed four people.

“I had no reason from a mechanical and structural view not to pass that ride,” he told the hearing.

Mr Polley said he passed the ride because Dreamworld had told him they were getting the documentation.

Mr Polley said the lack of documents was a “concern”.

“It surprised me and it disappointed me,” Mr Polley said.

The logbooks and daily maintenance schedules given to him were blank.

According to Workplace Health and Safety Regulations it is a requirement that logbooks and maintenance schedules must be sighted and complete, emergency stops must be clearly labelled and a qualified electrician must check the electrics. The conveyor’s fast emergency stop button was not labelled.

Mr Polley told the court he had inspected rides at theme parks on the Gold Coast and at a park on the Sunshine Coast.

The inquest has heard that if the button was pressed earlier, it may have made a difference to at least one person.

The inquest is examining what happened about 2pm on October 25, 2016 after a pump stopped working on the ride, causing water levels to drop and a raft to become stuck.

That raft was hit by another carrying Luke Dorsett, his sister Kate Goodchild, her daughter Ebony, 12, Roozbeh Araghi, Cindy Low and her son, Kieran, 10. The four adults were killed. The children escaped uninjured.

Mr Polley was engaged by Dreamworld to assess all of the park’s ‘class two’ rides as a part of annual checks.

He said he trusted Dreamworld on what they told him.

“They advised me that they had been in contact with the regulatory authority and the regulatory authority was assisting them …” Mr Polley said.

The ride certifier said he had never inspected the ride prior to his September inspection.

“I felt I had some professional obligation to assist them in the awful predicament they were in,” Mr Polley said.

Mr Polley will continue to give evidence today.