The former head of safety at Dreamworld parent company Ardent Leisure will continue to give evidence at an inquest into the deaths of four tourists at the park.

November 13, 2018

A former senior official at Dreamworld parent company Ardent Leisure will resume giving evidence at an inquest into the deaths of four tourists while on a ride at Australia’s biggest theme park.

Former head of safety Angus Hutchings on Monday said roles and responsibilities for safety at Dreamworld were not clearly defined and reporting mechanisms were not “particularly effective”.

“For some risks in the park, everyone thought it was someone else’s responsibility,” he said.

Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild, her brother Luke Dorsett and his partner Roozi Araghi died when two rafts on the Thunder River Rapids ride flipped and crashed into each other in October 2016.

Mr Hutchings agreed with a barrister for Cindy Low’s family, Matthew Hickey, that after Dreamworld’s safety manager was transferred to a role in the US in early 2016, “things were a little bit off the rails” at the park.

“In terms of what happened on the day (of the accident), I feel some kind of engineering control was needed to monitor a stationary raft and to be able to prevent the conveyor continuing to operate whilst a stationary raft was caught up in that area,” he said.

In earlier sittings, the inquest on the Gold Coast heard from staff who operated the ride on the day of the tragedy, those who were first to respond to the horrific scene and investigating authorities.

Four former park employees are suing Dreamworld for psychological injuries suffered on the day of the tragedy.