Ardent Leisure pleads guilty over 2016 Dreamworld ride deaths

Ardent Leisure, owners of Gold Coast theme park Dreamworld, have pleaded guilty to three charges relating to the deaths of four people in 2016.

Charged with three counts of Failure to Comply with Health and Safety Duty, Category 2, under the Queensland Health and Safety Act in relation to the fatalities, Ardent Leisure today admitted to failing to comply with its health and safety duty, exposing individuals to a risk of serious injury or death.

Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild, Luke Dorsett and Roozi Araghi died when their raft on the Thunder River Rapids Ride collided with an empty raft and flipped on 25th October 2016.

Two children, aged 10 and 12 years, were on the same raft but managed to escape.

The Coronial inquest into the four deaths made findings of a series of failures at the theme park, including safety and maintenance systems that the Coroner described as "rudimentary at best" and "frighteningly unsophisticated".

In a brief appearance in the Southport Magistrates Court today, the company's legal representative Bruce Hodgkinson SC told Magistrate Michelle Dooley that Ardent Leisure instructed him to plead guilty to all three charges.

Formal arraignment will take place in the same Court on 28th September with the maximum penalty for each breach being $1.5 million - $4.5 million in total.

Outside Court, Hodgkinson said the matter would be an ongoing process, advising "we have entered the pleas and we will comply with all the Court's orders."

Beyond the health and safety breaches, Ardent Leisure is facing multiple separate compensation claims, including witnesses, staff and emergency first responders.

Commenting in relation to their clients, Shine Lawyers national practice leader Melissa O'Neill stated "there were four lives lost - $4.5 million in criminal charges, which may or may not be paid by a liability insurer, is simply not enough

"Clients that we are acting for are never going to recover from what they saw that day.

"It was one of the most difficult things that a person can go through."

There is also a separate class action by law firm Piper Alderman, on behalf of Ardent Leisure's shareholders.

Piper Alderman Partner Greg Whyte said they were alleging Ardent Leisure misled investors about "safety measures and other matters".

Image: Kate Goodchild, Luke Dorsett, Roozi Araghi and Cindy Low died while riding Dreamworld's Thunder River Rapids Ride on 25th October 2016.