In the recent CNN article “Dreamworld accident: 2 children survive fatal theme park malfunction” written by Euan McKirdy, Rebecca Wright, and James Masters, the writers share the tragic results of Dreamworld’s most recent ride malfunction.
“Two children survived a deadly ride malfunction at Australia's largest theme park, which killed four people on Tuesday.”
According to the article, “Police said Wednesday, a boy, and a girl, aged 10 and 12, were able to ‘extricate themselves,' in what Brian Codd, Assistant Commissioner for Southeast Region of Queensland Police Service, described as "almost a miracle.”
McKirdy, Wright, and Masters’ article describe that “Six people were riding on a ‘flume’ at the Thunder River Rapids Ride at Dreamworld theme park in Queensland when the malfunction occurred. Their flume flipped after it came into contact with another carriage towards the end of the ride, tossing some of the passengers onto the conveyor belt, where they were caught in the machinery, Codd said on Wednesday morning.”
Codd shares that “the two children are traumatized and being cared for by their family, adding they were lucky to be alive.”
Could Dreamworld Accident Have Been Prevented?
“I’m lucky to be alive.”
It’s not a statement anyone would like to say. It means tragedy struck in some way that will have a lasting effect on your life.
According to the article, “Police were called to the site after reports that ‘a number of people had been injured by a conveyor belt."
This description tells us there was a malfunction with the theme park ride.
Proactive Operations understand how critical it is to keep their guests safe. They continually take proactive measures to ensure their guests ‘are’ safe.
Could this accident have been prevented? A proactive operation would say, “Yes.”
Here’s why.
This ride is a piece of equipment, which means it should’ve been inspected regularly.
Now, we’re not aware of the theme park’s maintenance process, but we do know people died under their watch.
The importance of maintaining safe equipment should be at the top of your list.
Timely and comprehensive maintenance – where the staff is held accountable – will expose weaknesses in the equipment that warn you of impending concerns.
This accident was deadly, so regardless of your property, you need to understand the importance of keeping your property running smoothly and your guests safe.
Keep reading; we’re going to share how ‘proactive’ maintenance initiatives help you to ensure execution, strict accountability, and long-term efficiency.
Fix Your Process
You stress over equipment failures.
You think about it, because you know it’s vital to everyone’s safety.
But, who has time for maximizing efficiency when your whole process is broken? It’s easy to let things slip through the cracks at this point.
Do you agree?
You’re “putting out fires,” and fixing broken equipment or finding out about issues after something tragic has already occurred.
We get it; it’s overwhelming when you do think about how your guests’ lives are in your hands.
But, are you still focused on the next piece of equipment to breaking rather than preventing a breakdown from the start?
You’re probably tired of using additional resources when these problems are preventable.
Here’s the thing: Proactive Operations applies to every aspect of your property’s operation – especially equipment that affects your guests.
You must catch weaknesses before they lead to tragedy.
Here’s what you can do to get ahead of any equipment problems.
Check out these nine ways to identify equipment weaknesses and maximize the safety of your property.
- Outline and prioritize.
- Define necessary activities and tasks.
- Develop digital checklists with concrete steps for executing.
- Give your team necessary equipment and materials to perform and complete work assigned to them and to identify weaknesses.
- Schedule equipment inspections to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
- Verify completed work.
- Always inspect equipment for the possibility of additional maintenance to be conducted. (This is how you identify equipment weaknesses and prevent tragedies!)
- Document the details in your maintenance and inspection solutions for analysis.
- Determine if a weakness is severe, and fix it the right way.
Use preventive maintenance and continuous inspections to get the best results and keep your property safe.
Use Software to Address Equipment Weaknesses
You have nine ways to catch potential weaknesses. Act quickly and implement them today.
Then, use your preventive maintenance and equipment inspection software to accomplish the ultimate goal: keeping your equipment functional and your guests safe.
Use these solutions to identify and address weaknesses before they become major problems that lead to tragic accidents.
Do not wait for failed equipment.
Prevent these deficiencies before they occur.
Counteract the problems associated with broken equipment using ‘proactive’ maintenance efforts.
How to Eradicate Equipment Malfunctions That Lead to Tragedies
It’s time to employ Proactive Operations.
It will result in the efficiency required to identify potential equipment malfunctions before your stuff breaks, and your guests are put in danger.
Use your solutions to maximize your performance in four critical areas.
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Centrally organize and manage preventive maintenance activities.
The details of ongoing maintenance can be recorded, tracked, and maintained from a central place.
How effective would your team be managing your preventive maintenance from one activity detail record?
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All tasks, materials, labor, and equipment described in detail in one place.
Know everything about your equipment, especially its maintenance history.
Don’t question what or when something was addressed for a piece of equipment.
Spend less time on the computer and more time in the field ensuring your facility looks good and runs smoothly.
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Create and view activity schedules in a calendar.
Control a bird’s-eye view of your operation.
Add activities to the specific date and make changes as needed.
Let’s say you did find a potential weakness. What would your team do currently?
This is what you should do:
- Fix it, but also modify the schedule to track it frequently.
Now, you can do that with ease using a progressive solution.
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Catch potential weaknesses on the fly.
Proactive operations don’t let weaknesses slip through the cracks.
On-the-fly equipment inspections let you stay ahead of the game to ensure equipment is operating properly at all times.
Walking by a piece of equipment that needs extra attention? No problem.
Using a hand-held mobile device to scan RFID, QR code, or barcode tags on your equipment offers you the ability to inspect equipment and document the information in a few minutes.
A few extra minutes of your time can be the difference between life and death.
What’s more important to you?
Big question. Simple answer.
Over to You
Dreamworld’s Thunder River Rapids Ride tragedy is one that we’ll remember for a lifetime. It’s a tragedy that might’ve been prevented.
You can use maintenance and equipment inspection software to employ Proactive Operations, which helps you prevent tragedies from affecting the families that visit your property.
So, are you able to prevent accidents like this on your property?
