Disney World Monorail Crash

[DonjaiInLA]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/05/u.s.disney.monorail/

A monorail train at Walt Disney World crashed into the back of another train early Sunday, killing one driver, according to an amusement park spokesman and a witness interviewed by CNN. A 2 a.m. ET monorail crash at Disney World killed one person, a park spokesperson said. The crash occurred about 2 a.m. at one of the monorail stops at Disney World in Florida, said the witness, who requested anonymity. "Today we mourn the loss of our fellow cast member," said a statement by Mike Griffin, Disney's vice president for public affairs. "Our hearts go out to his family and to those who have lost a friend and co-worker." The statement said the monorail was shut down, "and we will continue to work closely will law enforcement to determine what happened and the appropriate next steps." The witness said one monorail train rammed into the back of a stationary train. A photo of the crash provided by the witness showed the front car of a train badly damaged where it hit another train at a station. According to the witness, a family of six in one train was freed from a damaged car. The witness said the family was shaken but uninjured.

[Reanimated35]

Poor driver. do monorails work the same as coasters where they have safety sensors on track which should have notified the driver of a train ahead? and surely it would have been lit up enough to see the train at a safe e-stop distance? must have been something wrong with the brake system? (or dont the have any sort of track brakes on the train?) - i know what im talking about anyway

Edited July 5, 2009 by reanimated35

[joz]

Micechat have really good informationhttp://micechat.com/forums/news/119188-mon...#post1055420313 This snippet of a post possibly explains the accident:

The short, short version is that Monorail Central cleared Monorail Pink in reverse into the Concourse (the Epcot side of the TTC) station without being aware that Monorail Purple was still in the station. Pink was cleared with MAPO override, meaning that the driver would have disabled the anti-collision system (there are a variety of legitimate reasons for doing this), and would have been acting on faith that Central wouldn't have cleared him into a dangerous situation because it sometimes is difficult to see everything you'd want to in the cab mirrors, particularly at night on a curve such as the one he was backing along. For whatever reason, Purple just sat in the station without attempting to avoid the accident, and was struck by Pink moving at the full 15 mph allowed during MAPO override. From what I understand, the driver of Purple was a new transfer from another department. Why Central would not have made sure the station was clear before moving any trains is a bit of a mystery, but I've heard that no one was actually in the control console (the control tower-looking place at Concourse) at the time. To my knowledge, there were no electrical or mechanical problems in play here. Again, I have to stress that I'm relating what I've heard, and I was not there. This is a second-hand account from others more familiar with the situation.

The person who posted that goes on to give some more information on how the system works so check the link above.

[cerberus584]

I don't know much about the american theme parks but it seems unusual to me that anyone would be operating a monorail at 2am. Do they run 24hours or something?

Edited July 5, 2009 by joz

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Well, I don't know much about the florida ones, but since DL Cal is open till midnight a lot, presumably WDW would be too, and after ferrying thousands of guests to their hotel, i'd see it being quite reasonable that the monorail would be parking (there are few other reasons why it would reverse, except for parking) at 2am...

[DonjaiInLA]

I don't know much about the american theme parks but it seems unusual to me that anyone would be operating a monorail at 2am. Do they run 24hours or something?

The various bars and entertainment venues across the park are open past midnight, though I do find it a bit puzzling that a family would still be out at 2AM..

[tipsy_bella]

The parks at Disney World Florida do stay open to midnight even to 1am in the morning at some stages (bonus magic hours, special events etc) especially during the busier periods in which this accident happened. It was on July 4th night which is one of the busiest days of the year for all 4 of the parks on site. So there is every possibility that families/people would be on board at this time.