The mother of the Dorsett siblings, Kim, took to Facebook to express her grief. Ms Goodchild's daughter is understood to have been one of the children thrown to safety from the raft and screamed in horror as she watched her mother die, the Daily Telegraph reports. Those killed include Canberra woman Kate Goodchild (née Dorsett), 32, her brother Luke Dorsett, partner Roozi Araghi and a 42-year-old woman. The raft is believed to have flipped due to the collision, crushing and drowning two men, aged 35 and 38, and two women, aged 42 and 32, about 2.20pm today on the Gold Coast, in Queensland. Initial investigations into the accident suggest that the raft collided with an empty vessel that had become stuck near the end of the ride, it has been reported. "Theme parks are a place for family fun and happiness, not tragedy," he told reporters.Two children survived being thrown from the doomed Thunder River Rapids ride at a theme park in Australia and screamed in horror as their mothers were killed, it has emerged. In April, the park's Rocky Hollow Log Ride was temporarily shut down after a man fell from the ride.Īustralian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said there would be a thorough investigation into the cause of Tuesday's accident. The park, which has been open since 1981, also features several roller coasters and the free-fall ride "The Giant Drop," where passengers plunge from a height of nearly 120 meters (400 feet). Thunder River is considered one of Dreamworld's tamer, family-friendly rides, and is open to children as young as 2. "I was speaking to one of the guys and he said it was the raft or the boat thing in front of him, the whole thing flipped and everyone was screaming," Capes said. that she was just about to go on the ride when she saw people running out, crying. The park was closed following the accident and was expected to remain closed on Wednesday.Ī witness, Lia Capes, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "We are deeply shocked and saddened by this, and our hearts and our thoughts go out to the families involved and to their loved ones," Davidson told reporters. "It is a complex retrieval involving heavy equipment and that will take several hours," Reid said.ĭreamworld CEO Craig Davidson said the park was working with police to try and determine what went wrong. Police were interviewing witnesses and reviewing closed-circuit television footage of the incident while crews worked to remove the bodies from the scene on Tuesday night, he said. Reid said he was not aware of any previous problems with the ride. Media reports say the man was Luke Dorsett's partner from Canberra and the woman was a New Zealand citizen who lived in Sydney. Police have declined to identify the other two victims, a 38-year-old man and a 42 year-old woman. "I have two granddaughters - an 8-month-old and a 12-year-old - and it truly breaks my heart to know that my 8-month-old is never going to get to know her mom," she said. Kim Dorsett was on a family vacation with her children and Goodchild's daughters from Canberra. "I have three children and have lost two of them today - my whole family has been wiped out," she told The Courier-Mail newspaper on Tuesday. Kim Dorsett, of Canberra, confirmed that two of the victims were her children: Kate Goodchild, 32, and Luke Dorsett, 35. Park staffers administered first aid to the victims, but their injuries proved fatal, Fuller told reporters. He did not know whether the two victims who were caught in the ride were trapped under water, or caught up in the machinery. A malfunction caused two people to be ejected from their raft, while two others were caught inside the ride, said Gavin Fuller, an officer with the Queensland Ambulance Service. The Thunder River Rapids ride whisks people in circular rafts along a fast-moving, man-made river.
She did not detail the children's condition or explain their relationship to the victims. Two children who were in the raft at the time of the accident were hospitalized, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Wednesday. Two men and two women died while on the ride at Dreamworld, a park on Queensland state's Gold Coast, Queensland police officer Tod Reid told reporters.
SYDNEY (AP) - Four people including a young mother and her brother were killed Tuesday after a river rapids ride malfunctioned at a popular theme park on Australia's east coast, officials said.
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