UPDATED - Disney World monorails crash, killing Disney employee

Disney World monorails crash, killing Disney employee

Here's the Orlando Sentinel article...

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/orl-disney-world-monorail-crash-070509,0,2802055.story

 

Re: Disney World monorails crash, killing Disney employee

R.I.P. CM ;

 

Re: Disney World monorails crash, killing Disney employee

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/05/u.s.di ... index.html

My brother is in the parks today - scary stuff.

 

Re: Disney World monorails crash, killing Disney employee

Wow, that is something you don't hear every day.

 

Re: Disney World monorails crash, killing Disney employee

UPDATE from Orlando Attractions.

Two monorails collided at around 2 a.m. at the Transportation and Ticket Center, which is the hub for Walt Disney World’s transportation system. While the trains were reportedly mostly free of guests due to the late hour, Austin Wuennenberg, the pilot of Monorail Purple, was killed in the the accident. He was a 21-year-old Disney College Program cast member.

In an official statement, Zoraya Suarez of Disney’s Public Relations told us, “Today we mourn the loss of our fellow cast member. Our hearts go out to his family and to those who have lost a friends and coworker. The safety of our guests and cast members is always our top priority. The monorail is out of service and we will continue to work closely with law enforcement to determine what happened and the appropriate next step.”

Currently, the entire Walt Disney World monorail system is closed pending investigation. OSHA and other law enforcement are on the scene. This is the first fatality on record for the Walt Disney World monorail system since its launch in 1971 and it will likely take quite some time to figure out exactly what went wrong.

The specifics of how the crash occurred are still unknown. It appears that Monorail Purple was stationary when Monorail Pink backed into it. We talked to a former Disney monorail pilot (who wishes to remain anonymous) who spoke with several of the monorail cast members who were working last night.

Every night, the monorails are brought into the shop behind the Magic Kingdom for maintenance. The pilot we spoke with explained that in order to move from the main monorail lines onto the beams that lead into the shop (a “spur line”), the monorails must travel to a switch in the track. The Walt Disney World monorail system does have an anti-collision system built in. However, in order to perform the switch, the anti-collision system must be disabled first.

It appears that in the case of this accident, Monorail Pink should have been on its way back to the maintenance shop and likely had its anti-collision system disabled in order to make the track switch. What is unknown is why the monorail did not follow the spur line toward the maintenance shop and instead headed to the Transportation and Ticket Center, which is located on the opposite side of the track loop from the shop.

The former monorail pilot we spoke to told us that during the anti-collision override stage, the monorails can travel a maximum of 15mph. If Monorail Purple was stationary at the time of the collision, then the two could not have collided at a speed greater than 15mph. If Monorail Purple was moving, the combined speed of both monorails could not have exceeded 30mph.

Monorail Central is located at the Transportation and Ticket Center, within the blacked-out windows guests can see when waiting to board. It is their job to keep track of where the monorails are on the tracks and direct them to their destinations. Unfortunately, as we learned, the cast members within Monorail Central do not have a visual representation of where the trains are on the tracks. Instead, they radio to the pilots to determine their location.

So in this case, we do not yet know if the pilot of Monorail Pink incorrectly reported his or her location, was unaware that he/she did not make the needed switch onto the spur line to head to the shop, or if there was some other factor involved.

On his Facebook page, Austin Wuennenberg, the unfortunate pilot of Monorail Purple, posted a status update on June 9, “has a 14 hr shift today.” On May 30, he similarly posted, “is working Monorails 1:00 to 1:00.” It’s clear that monorail pilots regularly have long work days so fatigue on the part of the pilot of Monorail Pink certainly cannot be ruled out as a possible contributing factor to the crash.

[hr][/hr]

Having looked at pictures from the crash it does not look like Austin was most likely killed instantly. I wish his family my deepest condolences. I will not post the pictures here but if you wish to hunt them they are on WESH Orlando.

 

Re: Disney World monorails crash, killing Disney employee

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/19954891/detail.html

 

UPDATE: Disney World will reopen monorail -- with extra safety features

Disney World will reopen monorail -- with extra safety features

Walt Disney World is reopening its monorail system today -- with new safety sensors added to monitor track switches, according to a note to employees this morning.

The move comes a little more than 24 hours after a predawn collision killed one monorail pilot. The collision occurred as one of the trains was being transferred off the system's Epcot line, which ferries guests between the Magic Kingdom and Epoct, according to Disney's note.

Disney told its employees that investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have "released" the monorail system back to the theme park.

"We have completed a thorough safety inspection and system checks to verify that it is safe to operate the monorail for our guests and cast," Disney said. "We've added additional verifications of these track switch positions, supplemented our safety procedures and protocols for these operations, and communicated these changes to our Transportation partners."

A Disney spokeswoman could not be immediately reached for comment.

 

Will this imact guests riding up front on the Mono-rail?

 

You'd have to think that's one of the things they'll look at. ;

It didn't play a role in this incident, but someone is sure to raise the "what if" factor.

 

They have suspended this practice. ;

 

I guess it was the only choice, but I have longed to get to ride in the front of the monorail. ;

 

We did it on our last trip. ; It was very cool, but our pilot was very quiet.

 

We have done it many of time during our trips and have our "monorail licences". ; Knowing now what we know, glad that their safety record was as good as it was.

 

We did it last October and I certainly hope they allow it again, because its really cool for us big kids..............

 

More info has come to light and the fist is a video a family took.



http://www.orlandosentinel.com/videobet ... &src=front

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/loc ... 2363.story

 

Now they are reporting that those that were suppose to be in the Control Central were at Denny's! ; WTH?

 

It's fantastic to ride upfront. I sure hope it will be back eventually!