At Least 4 Killed On Theme Park ‘River Rapids’ Ride In Australia | TODAY

Overnight the popular Thunder River Rapids ride malfunctioned at the Dreamworld theme park in Australia, killing at least four people. The ride was considered family-friendly and safe for children as young as 3. NBC’s chief global correspondent Bill Neely reports for TODAY.

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At Least 4 Killed On Theme Park ‘River Rapids’ Ride In Australia | TODAY

[rainbowgremlinproductions]

The ride was grossly unsafe. My wife and i rode it a year before this happened to the day and almost to the exact time it happened. At the time i commented that it felt like the boat would flip and that i didn't feel safe. I said it was only a matter of time before someone was hurt or killed. May they Rest in Peace :( :( :(

[aceventuraify]

This doesn’t tell the whole story of how horrific this scene was. 2 of them drowned and the other 2 were crushed by the machinery under the conveyer belt. It took until early the next morning to get every part of them out of there, the first responders had to seek counselling.

[sweetarts]

I looked up this story and the way they died was absolutely horrific. I cannot even imagine the people who witnessed this, especially the kids.

[itzonlyjuliana]

This breaks my heart.. the poor children of those adults. This hurts.

[kristaw]

My husband and I don't let our kids ride certain rides that give us a bad feeling. We don't do traveling carnival rides at all. People probably think we're overprotective but we live near a now defunct water park that had a slide that killed a boy due to their negligence. When that water park opened that slide, we told our kids they weren't riding it because it looked sketchy. We were right.
I'm not an anxious person but I don't trust my kids' lives to some of these rides I see.

[petratambouras]

I have been on that ride many times, it's so sad that this has happened.😩

[Vulpini]

An Anerican show reporting g on an accident that happened in Australia, yet the correspondent is in London...

[starlodear]

These terrible events always remind me of "final destination"

[RT]

RIP to those all involved. Every time I see a video of an amusement park ride fatally malfunctioning, it’s almost always a water raft ride just like this. You’ll never catch me or my family on one again. Absolutely horrible. RIP again. 😪

[BratBustersParenting]

We've been on that ride many times with our kids thinking it was one of the safest rides at the park. Those poor people :(.

[d.lawrence]

This was 4-5 years ago. Have the lawsuits been settled yet? Have the families been paid?

[arnieXD]

Why is this guy smiling as he recalls the horrific incident?

[ohnoajellyfish]

I'm surprised Fascinating Horror hasn't done a story on this yet.

[hiroasuakika]

The channel Fascinating Horror did a documentary style video on this accident (which he handled very respectfully), and the details behind it were absolutely horrific.

The ride was a deathtrap waiting to happen.

[evehxr]

similar thing happened at a park called Drayton Manor in UK. the raft didn’t flip but this young girl tried swapping seats with her friend mid ride and she was flung into the water of the river rapids. she died sadly and the ride was removed from the park.

[zoieoutdoors]

And now it’s happened again in Iowa, USA. Same type of ride. It flipped and killed a young boy and left another in critical condition. Heartbreaking and disturbing as it seems these rides aren’t safe!

[beezysbeatz]

:26 "Dreamworld now a Nightmare" bet that reporter has had that little tagline ready since the park opened.

[queerbrowngirl]

i just read the coroner's report.

so the conveyer belt is not like a treadmill or airport conveyer where ur on top of a solid material that loops the whole machine, but rather just spaced out wooden planks that move with nothing underneath them. for description's sake, you cannot stand on the conveyer belt, if u tried to jump on it while it was operating u would fall thru the big empty space between each wooden slat & u would be cut in half by them moving. think moving train tracks elevated off the ground.

what happened was 1 of 2 water pumps necessary for the ride to function failed & within 70 something SECONDS of that failure those people were dying. all the water rapidly drained, causing a different raft to become wedged as it fell from a floating position in the water to directly laying on the rails of the ride (next to but off the conveyer belt), then the ill fated raft bumped into it & the conveyer still running obviously kept pushing it into the wedged raft & so there was no where to go but up & both rafts were pushed vertical before the raft with no injuries thankfully fell back to a rest position & the ill fated raft went completely sideways.

the raft basically landed with one side touching the floor of the ride - a little gap between the elevated conveyer belt & the elevated ride track just big enough for sideways raft to have fallen into.

like if this is the belt & track:
ㅛㅛㅛㅛㅛㅛㅛ ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
the raft was like this:
ㅛㅛㅛㅛㅛㅛㅛ↕️ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

so the tops of the people heads faced the conveyer belt & given more clearance the conveyer belt would have gone above their chest.... but the was no clearance so those wooden planks... just whacked into their heads & chests & tore them open & apart. the two kids were strapped into the seats most lifted into the air, so they were able to climb out of the raft & off the ride without being struck by the wood planks, but they saw everything.

medics said even if they had world class heart & brain & trauma doctors waiting there at the ready, they couldnt have saved those people. they died relatively quickly & did not have time to drown.

[vanessaruiz]

i would have never guessed this kind of "childish", innocent ride could be this dangerous.

[QAmodb]

I operated a ride like this before and I used to get so nervous operating it after they told me some people died on that ride in Texas (I operated the one in Gurnee).