The Thunder River Rapids ride at Dreamworld should have been shut down after it failed twice on the day four people died at the Gold Coast theme park, the inquest into their deaths has heard.

The park’s engineering supervisor, Peter Gardner, told the inquest into the deaths of Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild, Luke Dorsett and Roozi Araghi on Friday that the failure of a water pump on the ride for a second time on 25 October 2016 should have led to the ride being closed.

Dreamworld’s breakdown procedure was for a ride to be shut down and a supervisor notified if the same fault occurred twice in a 24-hour period.

The counsel assisting the coroner, Ken Fleming QC, asked Gardner how many times a ride had to break down before someone said “enough is enough”.

“Before a review is taken, it’s twice ... twice in the same day,” Gardner replied.

“That ride should not have been in service after it broke down the second time, should it?” Fleming asked.

“No,” Gardner said.

The inquest also heard that engineers, not electricians, reset the drive to the malfunctioning pump shortly before it broke down for a third time.

Mark Gordon, who is a mechanical engineer, told the inquest he was shown by a park electrician how to reset the pump’s drive after it failed.

When the water pump broke down a second time about an hour later, Gordon reset the drive without notifying his supervisor or electrical staff.

When cross-examined by the barrister Matthew Hickey, representing Low’s family, Gordon admitted he had never before reset the drive on the Thunder River Rapids ride.

“It is possible you missed one of the steps?” Hickey asked.

“I don’t recall,” Gordon replied.

Quentin Dennis, an electrician, told the inquest earlier on Friday he would not let a mechanic reset a ride’s pump.

“No, I wouldn’t show them because they don’t have experience on drives on the electric side of things,” Dennis said.

Gordon said he believed a fault had to be “escalated” only if it happened three times in a day.

The inquest, which adjourns on Friday, will resume in October with a further two-week hearing. A third two-week block has been scheduled for November.

“There are facts that are yet to be brought out about the nature of the rides,” Fleming said.

“We’ve talked about Australian standards and the like, none of that has come into discussion yet but all that is yet to come.”