Jointly attributed to Ardent Leisure Group Chairman, Dr. Gary Weiss AM (appointed Chairman on the 29th September 2017) and Ardent Leisure Theme Parks Division Chief Executive Officer, Mr. John Osborne (appointed on the 5th November 2018).
Ardent Leisure, owner and operator of Dreamworld, acknowledges that the Queensland Work Health and Safety Prosecutor has today filed three charges against it in relation to the Thunder River Rapids Ride tragedy that occurred in October 2016.
First and foremost, we again express our deepest sympathies to the families and friends of Roozbeh Araghi, Luke Dorsett, Kate Goodchild and Cindy Low for their loss and ongoing suffering and say sorry to all of the people impacted by this tragedy.
There has been considerable change at Dreamworld over the last few years as was acknowledged by the Coroner in his Report. Dreamworld has taken substantive and proactive steps to improve safety across the entire park and continues to enhance existing systems and practices, as well as adopt new ones, as we develop and implement our safety case in accordance with the Queensland Government’s new major amusement park safety regulations.
The new leadership team is committed to continuing to improve and enhance safety systems and practices with the aim of becoming a global industry leader in theme park safety and operations.
All three charges are Category 2 charges pursuant to section 32 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld) and each charge carries a maximum penalty of $1.5 million.
