It's unfathomable that an 18-year-old on her first day at work at Dreamworld had the lives and wellbeing of every soul riding the Thunder River Rapids in her hands on tragic Tuesday. The poor kid. She's reported to have had her finger on the emergency stop button, four people died and she will have to live with it forever. Why on earth was this allowed to happen? Was it simply a case of cheap labour, was it negligence, was it maintenance issue; was it a combination of all three?

Now four families are grieving and a young employee will be hellishly blaming herself. When your kids go to work you expect them to come home with dollars and the satisfaction of earning, not with a conscience damaged beyond repair. And for the rest of us adrenalin junkies who pay good money for a thrill, we expect people of experience to be in charge, we expect machinery to work, we expect to bring our kids home alive. I'd just like see some accountability come out of all this – not to go through a legal process where we see a company sliding out of its responsibility.

To date we've only seen the laying of some flowers and platitudes for the TV cameras. Our condolences to the families of those killed. But what the hell can we offer the eighteen year old? I hope all wrap-around support that is on offer.

H Hammond, Otumoetai.