A Melbourne father has slammed Dreamworld’s business-as-usual response to yesterday’s horrific accident at the Gold Coast theme park.
Jesse Lovett was at the park with his daughter and his sister’s family when four people were killed on the Thunder River Rapids ride at around 2pm Tuesday.
Lovett says he saw the helicopters hovering overhead, but was completely oblivious to the tragedy unfolding nearby as there was no notification from park staff, the attractions remained open and merchandise was still being sold.
Jesse Lovett was on the ride not long before the accident occurred. Image: Facebook.
"All the Dreamworld music was on. I couldn’t even tell that anything was wrong. That’s what makes me feel a bit sick," he told news.com.au.
“I was just wondering why they were still selling photos?"
Lovett says he's been left feeling "ill" about the way it was handled.
“The thing that keeps making me feel sick was that there was like big lines there," he said.
"Those people waited for 30 minutes to die and it doesn’t feel right to me at all. It feels weird that I got to go home and that family didn’t.”
Three victims of the shocking incident have been identified as Luke Dorsett, Roozbeh Aragh and Kate Goodchild.
Sadly, the latter's partner and children were present when the 30-year-old ride malfunctioned, according to The Courier Mail.
The park has been closed while authorities investigate the incident, but it's believed two of the rafts on the family-friendly attraction collided, causing one to flip over, reports ABC.
Two passengers were reportedly ejected from the raft and one became caught in the ride's conveyor belt.
A Dreamworld spokesperson told news.com.au that the ride was immediately shut down following the accident.
Lovett and his daughter had ridden the attraction earlier in the day, and has expressed concerns about its safety.
“I was on the rapid river ride with my two-year-old an hour before those poor people passed away and was concerned a Velcro strap was holding my daughter on my lap and I thought she was going to fall out,” he told news.com.au.
“It’s so rough and you had to hold it really tight.”
Lovett told the outlet that it had been his favourite ride, but that he was apprehensive about taking his little girl on it with him.
“All that was holding her in securely was me," he said. "The strap did nothing and easily came undone because it was wet.”
Top Comments
I'm at a loss as to why this man went on this ride if he didn't like the ride or was concerned for his 2yo??? You don't just jump on and sit down and you're off - they DO check that you've belted up. If your belt wasn't working and you're holding on to your 2yo and you're scared, then get off the bloody thing. So easy to come forward now and complain about it.
I think what he and a lot of others are saying is, that particular day the ride was very rough - rougher than usual. Many people have said it felt different, so I think he is right in saying he felt his 2yr old was unsafe. And also imagine being on the ride the same day as a disaster like that? It must mess with your head knowing you had a chance of being so close to being one of the victims. Shock does strange things to people and he may be just reaching out - to be fair to him he has been affected by this and he is reacting in his own way. We may not agree but I can't help feeling sorry for everyone that was there that day. It's sickening, scary and would mess with your head. People go through anger shock sadness devastation in terrible incidents like this. He's just chosen to write about it on social media which leaves him open to being criticized.
He went to the media, he didn't just write a post on Facebook. He's using a tragedy to get his 15 minutes of fame and that is disgusting.