Park may face lawsuits
AUSTRALIA: A law firm has already received inquiries from witnesses allegedly traumatised by the Dreamworld raft ride tragedy which killed four people.
The emergence of potential lawsuits comes as legal experts warned the park’s directors they have ‘‘reason to be nervous’’ following Tuesday’s freak accident.
Investigations are continuing into the deaths of 42-year-old expatriate New Zealander Cindy Low, from Sydney, and Canberra residents Kate Goodchild, 32, her 35-year-old brother Luke Dorsett and his 38-year-old partner Roozbeh Araghi.
Lawyers say damages claims from the victims’ families and those who witnessed the incident would be expected to run into millions of dollars.
Additionally, Dreamworld’s owner Ardent Leisure Group faces possible Workplace Health and Safety fines of up to A$3 million, while individual employees could be punished with a maximum A$600,000 fine and up to five years jail.
Alison Barrett from Maurice Blackburn said the Brisbane law firm had been contacted by a number of people who witnessed the incident. However she stressed that in most cases, the inquiries weren’t about money.
‘‘Those people aren’t really interested in ‘How much can I get?’. It’s more, ‘What happens now, what are my rights?’,’’ she said yesterday.
Queensland Law Society president Bill Potts said Dreamworld was facing a significant damages claim into the future.
‘‘I would have thought without a doubt the claim would have been into the millions.
‘‘But at the moment the concentration must be on absolute safety, not just at that theme park but at all theme parks.’’
Potts said damages claims were not ‘‘ambulance chasing’’ but acted as a deterrent to rogue operators, although he did not believe Dreamworld was an example of that.
‘‘One of the things that keeps organisations on their toes is the cost of insurance. So they have not only a moral and a legal but also an economic imperative to ensure people’s safety.’’
Barrett said that while she didn’t want to pre-empt any investigation into the incident, Dreamworld had to take responsibility for the tragedy
‘‘Any catastrophic event like this isn’t an act of God. These things don’t just happen, and in most cases that we act in that are similar to this, that investigation does reveal negligence, which is relatively easy to then prove.’’
The two young children who survived the accident would have the theme park’s ‘‘full support into the future’’, Dreamworld chief executive Craig Davidson said yesterday.
Davidson joined a group of staff to lay a wreath near the theme park’s entrance as the Thunder River Rapids ride remained a crime scene.
He said the team’s immediate focus was on the families and friends of the victims. Davidson said the accident had affected the entire Dreamworld family, its guests and the emergency services personnel who responded to the terrible scene.
‘‘Dreamworld is absolutely committed to fully supporting the authorities investigating the incident so we can find out exactly what has occurred.’’
Police on the Gold Coast are appealing for anyone who rode the Thunder River Rapids ride on Tuesday, witnessed the accident or has mobile phone footage of it to come forward.
Meanwhile, relatives of one of the woman killed in the accident have told the Seven Network that her husband’s wallet was stolen from their child’s pram as he desperately tried to help his wife.