19 Jun 2018

Emergency button could have saved Dreamworld lives

From Morning Report, 8:54 am on 19 June 2018

A coronial inquest has heard pushing an emergency button could have saved the lives of four people on Dreamworld's Thunder River Rapids ride on the Gold Coast. The four, including New Zealander Cindy Low, were killed instantly from crushing injuries when their six-person raft collided with an empty vessel and flipped backwards in 2016. A young female ride operator had access to an emergency button, which could stop the ride within two seconds, but the court heard she was not aware what the switch did. The Courier-Mail's court reporter Alex Utting told our deputy editor Kim Griggs there were also revelations about previous problems with the ride.