Early Lessons Emerging From The Inquest Into The Deaths At Dreamworld

The first seven days of evidence in the coronial inquest into the deaths of four members of the public (Roozi Araghi, Luke Dorsett, Kate Goodchild and Cindy Low) on the Thunder River Rapids ride at Dreamworld on 25 October 2016 are already providing us with insights into how such a tragedy could take place.

On Monday, 25 June 2018, Mark Thompson, Dreamworld's safety manager at the time of the incident (having been hired in March 2016) found himself in the witness box answering difficult questions.

To anyone who has investigated serious incidents and how they occur, the lessons emerging for safety management sound eerily familiar. Appropriate resourcing for critical operational and support functions has been at the heart of many of the lessons suggested by the early evidence.