A popular Dreamworld attraction has reopened with new safety features more than a year after a teenager was nearly killed when he fell out of the ride.
Samson Sherrin almost drowned after falling from the ride, which used the same conveyor belt system as the doomed Thunder River Rapids that killed four tourists.
He was knocked unconscious when he was run over by two other boats after slipping out of the Rocky Hollow Log Ride on the Gold Coast on April 17 last year.
The 19-year-old Brisbane man is still recovering after suffering severe neck and head injuries, hip, rib and foot fractures and acute respiratory failure.
The Rocky Hollow Log Ride has been reopened with new safety features after it nearly killed a Brisbane teen in April last year
The updated attraction, which sends visitors flying down a water slope in a make-shift log, has been fitted out with metal frames and perspex canopies.
New features have a roll-cage-like effect to protect park-goers from standing up and toppling over the edge into the water.
Mr Sherrin also suffered pneumonia and sought counselling for psychological trauma following last year’s terrifying ordeal.
He was left with lacerations across his body after his clothes were ‘ripped off’, and he suffered lower back and groin injuries.
Samson Sherrin almost drowned after falling from the ride, which used the same conveyor belt system as the doomed Thunder River Rapids that killed four tourists
The updated attraction, which sends visitors flying down a water slope in a make-shift log, has been fitted out with metal frames and perspex canopies
New features have a roll-cage-like effect to protect park-goers from standing up and toppling over the edge into the water
The ride was closed but was permitted to re-open just two days later after the Worksafe Queensland inspectors gave it the all clear.
At the time, Dreamworld chief executive Craig Davidson said ‘no improvement notices were issued’ by the inspectors – and despite the ride being open for 35 years there had never been a similar incident.
The incident followed the tragedy on the theme park’s Thunder River Rapids in October 2016 which killed two men, aged 38 and 35, and two women, aged 42 and 32.
The ride was closed but was permitted to re-open just two days later after the Worksafe Queensland inspectors gave it the all clear
At the time, Dreamworld chief executive Craig Davidson said ‘no improvement notices were issued’ by the inspectors
The victims were identified as Canberra woman Kate Goodchild, 32, her brother Luke Dorsett, 35, his partner Roozi Araghi, 38, and their friend, Cindy Low, 42, who is originally from New Zealand but had been living in Sydney.
Two children in the same raft – a 10-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl – were ejected to safety.
The Rocky Hollow Log Ride and Thunder River Rapids were two of the oldest running attractions at Dreamworld – the country’s biggest theme park.
The incident followed the tragedy on the theme park’s Thunder River Rapids in October 2016 which killed two men, aged 38 and 35, and two women, aged 42 and 32
The victims were identified as Canberra woman Kate Goodchild (right), 32, her brother Luke Dorsett, 35, his partner Roozi Araghi (left), 38, and their friend, a 42-year-old woman