FAMILIES ‘DO NOT BLAME’ OPERATORS
THE families of Dreamworld tragedy victims Kate Goodchild and Luke Dorsett reached out yesterday to comfort the two operators of the Thunder River Rapids Ride. On behalf of the families, lawyer Steven Whybrow told both Peter Nemeth and Courtney Williams (pictured): “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.
THE junior operator of the Thunder River Rapids Ride was told by a senior manager at Dreamworld not to give a statement to police on the day four people tragically died, an inquest has heard.
Courtney Williams, 21 at the time, had been trained to work the controls of the ride on the morning a raft flipped and killed Kate Goodchild, Luke Dorsett, Roozbeh Araghi and Cindy Low.
Ms Williams believes if she had more training the incident may have been prevented.
The young operator is also being hailed as a hero for climbing on to the conveyor to pull Ms Low’s son Kieran, 10, from the ride.
She then sat with him, trying to shield and comfort him from the horror of what had happened, until police and emergency crews were on the scene.
In a statement to police, Ms Williams said a senior manager of Dreamworld she knew only as “Troy” told her to not to give a statement.
“He told me not to say any- thing to anyone, don’t give any statements and just wait over to the side,” she said in a statement shown to the inquest in the Southport Coroner’s Court yesterday.
When police asked to speak her, Ms Williams said Troy told her to do to it somewhere else, her statement said.
Barrister to Mr Araghi’s family Toby Nielsen questioned what she meant in her statement.
“Was it your interpretation that Troy was worried about what you might say?,” he asked.
“Yes,” Ms Williams replied. Ms Williams said she then remained at Dreamworld until about 6.30pm – four-and-ahalf hours after the tragedy – before being taken to the police station to continue her statement.
The now 23-year-old has not returned to work at Dreamworld by choice following the deaths on October 25, 2016.
After a pump stopped working on the Thunder River Rapids Ride, the water levels dropped and a raft got stuck on a conveyor.
It was hit by a raft carrying Ms Goodchild, her daughter Ebony, 12, Mr Dorsett, Mr Araghi, Ms Low and her son, Kieran, 10. Their raft flipped. Two adults were trapped and the other two adults fell out.
Both children remained on the raft until the conveyor stopped and escaped uninjured.
Ms Williams had been at the theme park for almost two years, mostly working as a level one operator.
On the morning of the tragedy, she received 90 minutes training, between 9.35am and 11.05am, to become a level two operator on the Thunder River Rapids Ride.
Her trainer, Amy Crisp, told her of the shut down procedure for the ride at the main control panel.
However, Ms Williams said she was not told which button shut down the conveyor belt.
There were two buttons that stop the conveyor – one on the main control panel which takes eight seconds to fully halt the belt.
The other operator on the ride that day, Peter Nemeth, told the inquest he pushed the button two or three times before the two rafts collided, but it did not stop the conveyor.
The other button was an emergency stop button stationed about 10 metres from the main control panel.
During her training, Ms Williams said she was shown the button from a distance.
“She (Amy Crisp) said, ‘do you see that button over there, don’t worry about it, you don’t need to use it’,” Ms Williams told the inquest.
The button, which could stop the conveyor belt in two seconds, was less than a step away from Ms Williams when the raft flipped, but she did not know what it did.
Counsel assisting the coroner, Rhiannon Helsen, asked if Ms Williams had been told at any time that the button would shut down the conveyor. “No,” she replied. During the short training, Ms Williams said she was shown how to use the control panel to shut down the ride.
“I could press them if I was comfortable and confident to do so,” she said.
“Because it was my first day I was not comfortable and confident in handling the control panel if I didn’t need to.”
Ms Williams said throughout her time at Dreamworld she had never received any first aid or CPR training.
She told Matthew Hickey, the barrister for Ms Low’s family, the operators on the ride did not know what they needed to know.
“We needed to know what to do in those situations,” she said.
“I had never been put in that situation before. I needed to think on my feet really.”
Ms Williams said fire drills were the only emergency training she had received at the park. Mr Hickey asked: “This was obviously an awful and terrible event … what do you think could have been done to avoid it?”
Ms Williams replied: “I believe more training.”
Ms Williams also told the inquest she thought the ride would stop automatically if the water levels dropped too low.
It was low water levels which caused the first raft to become stuck.