By Mark Schliebs
September 04, 2007 news.com.au
* Maintenance worker causes ride to malfunction
* Carriages, with doors open, crash into each other
* Incident happened before opening hours
A MAINTENANCE worker caused an amusement park ride in Queensland to malfunction just weeks before five people died on an identical ride in Asia.
The maintenance worker put "The Eye" ferris wheel on manual override, causing carriages to crash into each other while doors were open.
Fortunately, the ferris wheel was tested before the Gold Coast Sea World theme park opened its doors for the day.
Photos of the incident, believed to have been taken by a maintenance worker at the scene, were sent to NEWS.com.au.
Warner Village Theme Parks CEO John Menzies said management was not aware of the incident until they were shown the photos.
“We were all staggered, it’s the first time we’ve seen it,” Mr Menzies told NEWS.com.au.
“(An apprentice) had it in manual override and inadvertently left the doors open… maintenance didn’t report it.”
The ride was usually tested by maintenance workers in “fail safe mode”, which was disabled at the time.
He also said that “it could never happen if someone was on the ride”.
"Full-blown review"
“Immediately after the Korean incident we shut the ride and contacted the Swiss manufacturer," Mr Menzies said.
“After making recommended manufacturer’s changes to the operation of the ride, it was re-opened briefly but we voluntarily closed the ride two weeks ago to conduct a full-blown review of its operation to be absolutely satisfied that it meets our stringent safety standards.
“At the moment we are working closely with Queensland Workplace Health and Safety Group to ensure the ride is safe to re-open.”
Five people were killed at a South Korean amusement park on August 13 after two ferris wheel carriages crashed into each other, forcing the doors to open and passengers to fall to their deaths.
Thats bad and its only a couple of weeks after the one in asia killed the people. Lucky it didn't happen while the park was open!