Ardent Leisure accused of safety failures during maintenance of Tailspin ride at Dreamworld

Dreamworld operator Ardent Leisure has charged with a suite of alleged health and safety breaches over maintenance procedures on one of its rides.

The Queensland Work Health and Safety Prosecutor alleged Ardent failed to ensure the boom of Dreamworld’s Tailspin ride was secured to anchor points and base plates during maintenance work in 2021.

The charges relate to an alleged incident on 23rd February 2021 when workers were performing maintenance on the ride, first installed at the theme park in 2014, by taking down six of its 12 gondolas.

The Work Health and Safety Prosecutor laid a complaint in November, first heard at Southport Magistrates Court on Monday, charging alleging that Ardent with failure to comply with work health and safety duty.

The Prosecutor alleges that Ardent failed to make sure workers knew correct maintenance procedures before working on the ride.

Southport Magistrates Court documents say it is alleged the company failed to ensure:

• Workers had a copy of the manufacturer’s maintenance instructions prior to the work;

• The ride’s movable arm was secured to anchor points and base plates;

• Workers were instructed in the safe way to perform the maintenance in line with the manufacturer’s instructions;

• Workers were prohibited from starting the task until appropriate measures were in place.

The Court documents said Ardent Leisure “should have eliminated or minimised the risk as far as it was reasonably practical”, adding “the disassembly task was hazardous in that it passed a risk to the workers, namely injuries and/or injuries from falling objects, if the arm lifted or otherwise moved uncontrolled.”

Acknowledging that Workplace Health and Safety Queensland had filed a complaint against it over maintenance work on the Tailspin, a Dreamworld spokeswoman advised “Ardent Leisure Ltd, owner and operator of Dreamworld acknowledges that Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has filed a complaint against it in relation to an event that occurred during scheduled maintenance work on the Tailspin attraction in February 2021 when it was closed to guests.

“Nobody was injured as a result of the event and Ardent is proactively engaging with the regulator to address the matter.

“The safety of our staff is as critical to Dreamworld as the safety of our guests, and we work hard to continually improve our processes around both.”

The statement added “on 31 August last year Ardent was issued with the first Major Amusement Park Licences in Queensland under the State’s new licensing regime after demonstrating a robust safety case for the management of health and safety at both its Dreamworld and Whitewater World theme parks.”

The case has been adjourned and will returns to Court in February.

This new alleged breach comes after Ardent Leisure pleaded guilty to safety a string of charges in the aftermath the death of four guests on its Thunder River Rapids ride in October 2016 - ordering the company to pay $3.6 million in fines.

The presiding magistrate, in September 2020, criticised the company for not taking steps to minimise the risk of injury or death that would have been “inexpensive” and “only mildly inconvenient”.

In late 2020, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland was reported to be investigating two other incidents at Dreamworld.

Images: Dreamworld operator Ardent Leisure has been charged over safety breaches during work on its Tailspin ride (top) and the ride has a big boom arm, which spins riders in a separate plane (below). Credit: Dreamworld.