Dreamworld response should have been 'very different': Thomas

Ardent Leisure's CEO Deborah Thomas said her company should have responded in a 'very different' way following the Dreamworld accident which caused four deaths.

Ardent Leisure CEO Deborah Thomas

Ardent Leisure CEO Deborah Thomas Source: AAP

Ardent Leisure's CEO Deborah Thomas has expressed regret over the Dreamworld accident in an interview with the Australian Financial Review, saying the park operator's response in alerting the families of victims should have been different. 

“If, heaven forbid, we ever had to do this again, the decisions we made would be very different,” she said.

The differences related to applying “more pressure to move quickly with police” to contact the family of the victims.

Ms Thomas also said her company's decision to award her a performance bonus a day after the tragedy could have been delayed.

“If I had known that motion could have been deferred I would have deferred it. It was obviously misconstrued,” she said.

Dreamworld CEO Craig Davidson said no decision has been made yet on when the Gold Coast theme park will reopen.

The park has been closed for eight days following last week's tragedy where four people died on the Thunder River Rapids ride.

Mr Davidson said the primary focus remains the families of the victims as they prepare funerals and no timeline has been established for the park's reopening.


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Source: AAP, SBS News


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