Monorail Crash

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Every news report I have seen has said the Monorail is shut down so I think that means the entire WDW Monorail system. They will need to make sure it is safe before they reopen it plus I doubt WDW would want their guests seeing the crash scene that closely. It would be traumatic, especially knowing it resulted in a fatality. OSHA would probably keep it shut down until they are absolutely sure it's safe anyway.

I'm not disputing that it is down today--but even the Washington Metro did run sooner than expected. All trains switched to manual until they knew what caused the crash. I am not sure their current status--but the whole system did not stay down.

If the monorails are still sitting in their crashed state, they would want to keep guests from seeing that as well.

So could they just run the monorails in manual?

I would think that OSHA would conduct both investigations in a similar fashion and not obligate Disney to keep the monorail entirely closed for this type of crash alone.


Do they still have that bus loop open at TTC as well? I would think they would close that to prevent any spectating as well.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Watching the channel 9 update--the monorial trains are still in the station and thankfully they have built a wall to block the view of the collided portion of the trains.

 

[onelilspark]

As is always the case during a loss, my thoughts & prayers are with the young man and his family.

For practical matters... I have some questions about the crash. Someone posted at the start previous crashes. I noticed none resulted in death. It makes me wonder if the driver died prior to the crash (brain anurism for example.) I am curious as to why the fail safes didn't trigger. I remember speaking to a driver about that once. I'll be interested to see how the investigation proceeds.

 

[whjoyjr]

It was tragic, and there are plenty of questions that will need to be answered. I feel for the family of the Pilot, and his co-workers in the monorail system.

I am sure that the investagation will look into the number of hours the Pilot had put in that day, and the amount of off-time the pilot had between shifts.

And there is the electronic system, and if Monorail Pink was in automated or manual mode. To me, based upon the damage, it seems that Monorail Pink was traveling quite fast to be entering the station.

 

[goin2disneyagain]

I'm not disputing that it is down today--but even the Washington Metro did run sooner than expected. All trains switched to manual until they knew what caused the crash. I am not sure their current status--but the whole system did not stay down.

If the monorails are still sitting in their crashed state, they would want to keep guests from seeing that as well.

So could they just run the monorails in manual?

I would think that OSHA would conduct both investigations in a similar fashion and not obligate Disney to keep the monorail entirely closed for this type of crash alone.


Do they still have that bus loop open at TTC as well? I would think they would close that to prevent any spectating as well.

Actually I wasn't responding to your post. I was responding to ztbz's post. "It appears from another news report form this afternoon that the Monorails are still on the track, which is on the Epcot Beam, I am not sure if the other two tracks (Magic Kingdom & Resort Rail) are affected, Most Likely they are also down cause of it." He/she stated the above and I was responding to that when I said from all news reports that the entire Monorail system appears to be shut down. Not sure why you assumed I was responding to your post but I wasn't.

 

[whjoyjr]

I'm not disputing that it is down today--but even the Washington Metro did run sooner than expected. All trains switched to manual until they knew what caused the crash. I am not sure their current status--but the whole system did not stay down.

The metro did not run on the affected section of the system, they set-up a bus bridge bypassing the affected section of track and station.

 

[goin2disneyagain]

Thanks for sharing this link. It is kind of disturbing but insightful.

 

[theweave]

Thanks for sharing this link. It is kind of disturbing but insightful.

It was... but if you are like me, you start watching it and stopping and re-winding etc. I did notice the one of the left (pink) must have still had power with it's light on the top still blinking, while the purple one doesn't appaear at least to have power to it. But it is possible the light was destroyed on impact.

Like someone else said, if this had happened at 2:00 pm instead of am, it would have been a much bigger story, high chance of a family being up front.

I am the investigative type, not a gore monger or anything.

Still wondering why that CM chased the guy away though.......

 

[mousemom11]

Also, I am a little perturbed at the cast member who transfers his concern for the driver and passengers to the guy with a video camera and chases him away!!! Disney code of silence perhaps????

I suppose you could choose to interpret it that way. I saw it as a sign of respect for those who were involved in the crash. The CM was just doing his job, which is to establish crowd control after an accident.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

The metro did not run on the affected section of the system, they set-up a bus bridge bypassing the affected section of track and station.

I know.

In theory--they could operate the resort and MK tracks much sooner than the EPCOT track.

That portion of the redline that was closed immediately was due to wreckage needing removal as well as for investigative purposes. Other than that the whole metro system operated on manual.

My point was that OSHA wouldn't shut down the entire monorail for an extended period of time.

For those wondering about how this could happen--if it was medical, the emergency system would have kicked in an stopped the train.

There is a floating theory on the community board that sounds very sad. It seems one train may have been backing up to get ready to go into storage and would have manually overridden it's MAPO to do that at the request of central. The theory has been repeated by multiple folks and it sounds plausible to me. IF it is determined to be true--than the poor driver had to witness something that he could not control or stop. And if the cabs are intended to crush as they did at any speed--it is likely that his cab being crushed by the force of the other train is what killed him.


goin2disneyagain: I wasn't disputing your post--I was simply asking about the possibility that Disney can open the other tracks if they deem it is safe to do so long before the investigation is complete in the accident as they did in Washington since those tracks are completely separate.

I was hoping the poster whose husband works for disney would know--or any other folks would know.

Very sad all around.

 

[Joyce Kingkade]

It would bother me that a computer system does have daily glitches!

I'm just grateful there were no guests up front at the time.

I agree daily glitches do worry me, and I don't think we will ride up front anymore. That said, this is the first fatality on the monorail at WDW. I have a feeling the monorail will be closed for a while.

 

[theweave]

Thanks for sharing this link. It is kind of disturbing but insightful.

I suppose you could choose to interpret it that way. I saw it as a sign of respect for those who were involved in the crash. The CM was just doing his job, which is to establish crowd control after an accident.

Yes you could be correct in that regard. It was just the way he said "Hey no cameras, get out of here!" Like it was a very secure area or confidential information.

I didn't see anyone else being escorted out either. This guy may have had a piece of evidence for the investigation.

 

[snickerboo]

I feel bad for the poor kids in the video who are freaking at the end realizing someone has died. It's weird how everyone was so calm at the beginning of the video, though. And the way the CM was reacting, not running or doing anything he could to see if the driver was alive until the guest said, 'was there anybody in here?'

This is a sad event, truly, but I don't question the safety of the monorail system or the parks.

 

[brighteyes]

A guest taping at the scene of an accident is quite different from an "authorized person taping for reasons of investigation.

The cm who chased the guy away was probably doing so out of respect for the people involved. He does work for disney and I would not want a guest with their personal video cam taping at the scene of an accident if I were disney, who could then post it on boards such as this or on youtube etc. If that was my son in there, even if alive and injured I would not want his trauma to be posted all over the internet.

Stephanie

 

[theweave]

I feel bad for the poor kids in the video who are freaking at the end realizing someone has died. It's weird how everyone was so calm at the beginning of the video, though. And the way the CM was reacting, not running or doing anything he could to see if the driver was alive until the guest said, 'was there anybody in here?'

This is a sad event, truly, but I don't question the safety of the monorail system or the parks.

Yeah I agree, everyone did seem pretty calm in the video despite the scene. My theory is this: the monorails have driver stations on both ends perhaps (they look identical on each end) and the CM didn't know or didn't realize the driver was in that compartment until he looked in the window when somone asked???

The reports that I have read said the driver was killed on impact, little surprise there I think. Small consolation is that he went without pain.

I do feel for the other people, their vacation just won't be the same anymore, major trauma I bet!

 

[theweave]

A guest taping at the scene of an accident is quite different from an "authorized person taping for reasons of investigation.

The cm who chased the guy away was probably doing so out of respect for the people involved. He does work for disney and I would not want a guest with their personal video cam taping at the scene of an accident if I were disney, who could then post it on boards such as this or on youtube etc. If that was my son in there, even if alive and injured I would not want his trauma to be posted all over the internet.

Stephanie

Stephanie,

Putting it that way I understand what you are saying... at first blush struck me as strange, especially hearing about the supposed "code of silence" at WDW.

You are right, if I were related I would not want it either. But it is out there, and so I decided to share it since everyone here was talking about it.

 

[brighteyes]

Stephanie,

Putting it that way I understand what you are saying... at first blush struck me as strange, especially hearing about the supposed "code of silence" at WDW.

You are right, if I were related I would not want it either. But it is out there, and so I decided to share it since everyone here was talking about it.

I didn't mean you for posting it, I have watched it, and am very saddened by it. But after watching it, I wish I had not.

I meant the cm trying to stop that guy from taping - it was an accident and if people want to try to help fine - but to stand around taping? The cm was probably just trying to control the scene.

This is right after the crash, - no one knew yet that the poor cm was dead. They probably thought he was just unconcious. There are no obvious signs of distress upon the cm and guests looking in the window. They probably had NO IDEA he was already dead.

Very very sad.

 

[theweave]

Stephanie,

You are right, they would have no idea that he was dead at the time the video was taken. From other pictures that I have seen today, they had to cut a hole in the top of the cab to get him out, it was crushed that much.

The whole situation must have been stressful for everyone who was there. I am not sure if the people outside were waiting to get on that monorail (I don't think they were) but that CM outside must have witnessed the whole thing, I am surprised that he was not screaming his head off... looking back he was very calm and probably in shock at the accident. Very common reaction (been in a few car accidents in my life!)

You are right, very sad situation and a tragic one at that.

 

[stacy6552]

Stephanie,

You are right, they would have no idea that he was dead at the time the video was taken. From other pictures that I have seen today, they had to cut a hole in the top of the cab to get him out, it was crushed that much.

The whole situation must have been stressful for everyone who was there. I am not sure if the people outside were waiting to get on that monorail (I don't think they were) but that CM outside must have witnessed the whole thing, I am surprised that he was not screaming his head off... looking back he was very calm and probably in shock at the accident. Very common reaction (been in a few car accidents in my life!)

You are right, very sad situation and a tragic one at that.

Unfortunately, based on the photos, I can imagine what the CM saw to declare him dead. There are some conditions where its obvioius.

Our prayers go out to the CM's friends and family and all out beloved WDW CM's.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

I head the first early reports of this in our hotel (Washington DC) this morning, but the details were sketchy. I'm so sorry to hear that someone died in the crash -- I've been thinking about him and his family all day. Thank goodness it was so late at night and the trains were nearly empty.

I wonder now who will investigate. Is the monorail a part of a "transit system" and under the perview of the NTSB, or is it an "amuzement attraction" and therefore under the jurisdiction of the state?