Monorail accident

[rteetz]

They could be setting themselves up for disaster if they decide to full automation with no CM on board, seeing as they don't provide an emergency evacuation walkway for the monorail.

I don't think there will ever not be a CM on board.

 

[LeeAndRobin]

That particular accident was a perfect storm of events. Remove any one of many factors, and the crash may not have occurred:

This statement is true, in fact, about almost any accident in any form of transportation. In almost every case, an accident is the result of a chain of events, which, if any one of them didn't happen, the accident would not have happened.

 

[Teamubr]

This statement is true, in fact, about almost any accident

I've worked in performance improvement in healthcare for 30 years. I get so tired of teaching the "Swiss cheese model", but it is applicable almost every time.

j

 

[Josh Hendy]

I've worked in performance improvement in healthcare for 30 years. I get so tired of teaching the "Swiss cheese model", but it is applicable almost every time.

Imagine a series of Swiss cheeses with certain holes that may line up on any ordinary day of monorail operations, but they almost never line up, resulting in safe operations. Now consider the final holes that fell into place and resulted in the accident where the CM died. The new and fatal weaknesses occurred because of park crowding, made worse by the severe imbalance between MK and all other parks, which led to operating the park on an extra-long schedule, to the point where worker resources were overstretched and fatigued.

The ordinary, everyday holes were the lack of automated signalling and braking systems, and lack of an extra driver to help back up the trains. But on ordinary days those holes were plugged by having experienced and alert employees on hand to operate the trains/switches and do everything manually and correctly. The accident was caused by Disney cramming the MK and then pushing the hours out to something like a 20 hour schedule to handle the crowds, but (this is the important part) they didn't scale up the number of experienced operators and supervisors to the same degree, resulting in an inexperienced employee being on hand to throw the switch incorrectly and an overworked supervisor being on break off-site at the critical moment and not personally supervising the manual system.

An automated train system might make the monorails safer overall, but can they make up for a cost-cutting, profit-squeezing approach to running the parks?

 

[CalvaryMike]

I love the monorail system. But after being stuck on one w/ no ac one summer days decades ago, I now drive or walk. It's faster and more convenient for the most part.

 

[dISNEYlOveer]

There will always be a pilot on the monorail even when in full automation. If something goes wrong, in theory, they can stop the monorail before an accident.

 

[zaccaglin]

There will always be a pilot on the monorail even when in full automation. If something goes wrong, in theory, they can stop the monorail before an accident.

You hit the nail right on the head there. However the system will never be fully automated at WDW.

 

[rteetz]

You hit the nail right on the head there. However the system will never be fully automated at WDW.

How do you know this? Yes there will be pilot there but only for override purposes.

 

[zaccaglin]

How do you know this? Yes there will be pilot there but only for override purposes.

I have connections within the department if you wish to know how you may message me. As for the system it will only be semi automated and a pilot always on board and will still be responsible for the train in more ways than just override monkey.