Disney Skyliner Accident

[amcc]

I was going to write the same thing. 90% of this thread is speculation at this point.

Might be a while until we know the exact facts

There are actually quite a few facts known and most of the discussion here is relative to that. The fact is that there was a crash at a station that stopped the movement on that line. Gondolas in the stations were evacuated quickly. The fire department arrived to evacuate gondolas on the line and evacuated a number of them (not a fact but maybe 6) using aerial ladders and other equipment. The rest of the gondolas sat on the line for 3.5 hours until they were moved back to the station. The majority of the discussion has been about the 3.5 hours.

 

[Irish_Mike]

This is like using Goodyear tires on a Disney bus and having them all pop. That's Goodyear's design flaw, not Disney's.

Were the tires designed for busses? For the daily wear and tear that these busses get compared to a car that might only drive to the store and back? Did Disney have alternatives to Goodyear that they could've gone with?

 

[snappy]

They were likely trying to avoid an evacuation altogether.

And they waited a bit too long.

 

[UmmGooD]

I thought the button was a speaker/mic I could be wrong.

thanks I don’t know that is why I was asking. I really don’t see how they can determine the severity of each gondola while they are in the air.

Then to hear about people perusing compensation after this makes me feel like Disney majorly dropped the ball on this. The story about managers meeting with guests after they get off the ride seems above and beyond what Disney did here. I really feel for the people who went through this ordeal.

 

[mshanson3121]

Whats the difference?

Don't be ignorant.

 

[rteetz]

Youre all over the place

So is this thread

 

[BaymaxFan78]

So is this thread

Ryan's out here with the facts lol

 

[Brianstl]

There's a huge difference between being on the ground where you can pop into an air conditioned building at any moment, and being trapped in a hot box for hours. That should be pretty obvious. But then again common sense is in short supply these days.

Don’t take a transportation system that isn’t air conditioned if you might need life saving cool air. Seriously, if you can’t healthily sit for three hours at night with temperatures in the upper 70’s and a 9 moh breeze.......... you shouldn’t be at WDW.

 

[mshanson3121]

Don’t take a transportation system that isn’t air conditioned if you might need life saving cool air. Seriously, if you can’t healthily sit for three hours at night in with temperatures in the upper 70’s and a 9 mph hour breeze.......... you shouldn’t be at WDW.

Oh my mistake. Here I thought Disney was going to run these on July afternoons when it's 100+, and when stopped for hours, and there's no breeze, the temperatures inside these things could go even higher, to life threatening levels. Which was my original comment, questioning the general safety of these, not specific to last night.

But hey, AWESOME! If they're only going to run these on balmy nights, then by all means.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Don’t take a transportation system that isn’t air conditioned if you might need life saving cool air. Seriously, if you can’t healthily sit for three hours at night in with temperatures in the upper 70’s and a 9 mph hour breeze.......... you shouldn’t be at WDW.

Nobody is arguing that this was dangerous at night in October. But it seems like it will be dangerous during the day in July.

 

[rteetz]

Except this isn’t what the reports said actually happenned. Reports are that RCFD was literally raising a bucket to another gondola when it started moving. That itself raises a whole other set of communications worries, such as, what would have happenned if it started moving while someone was getting into the bucket. Other reports form people actually stuck up there were that they could see them going methodically gondola to gondola in front of them. It does not sound like they “triaged.” It sounds like they just really stunk at doing evacuations in any kind of decent time.

The reports have been all over the place. If they were going gondola to gondola you would think they would’ve got more than 6 cabins evacuated. If I’m not mistaken I saw two places where they were possibly evacuating near the boardwalk and backstage at Epcot.

 

[hertamaniac]

Disney didn’t design these vehicles in the first place. Disney ordered an off the shelf D line system.

But, I would think Disney created the scope and specifications for a/the system for the vendors to bid/design to. Now whether Disney would specify a more elaborate (and costly) cooling system onboard would be my question.

 

[cakebaker]

Exactly! Not to mention there is a difference between torque and momentum, the later of which is mass X velocity, so speed is 1 of the factors). I'm sure no one that was stuck was glad it's not smooth sailing.

I'm afraid she'll be disappointed in the end. There is video of them already testing the gondola's today. I don't think they'll be down long.

 

[rteetz]

The article I posted earlier quoted someone from the RCFD. They were at full response and had help from additional departments. The RCFD firefighter quoted that they are so understaffed that they would not have been able to respond to any other incident if it had happened at the same time as this breakdown.

I’m not sure what to believe from these reports right now. You would think in testing the evacuations they would’ve seen the response needed.

 

[mousemagic00]

How they didn’t outfit these with A/C that is solar powered is beyond me. Tesla has the tech and the batter(ies) could live under the benches. The units they have that can power a whole house aren’t very large.

I even think Toyota has a solar AC in the Prius for when you are parked, but sitting in the car.

 

[TwoMisfits]

I’m not sure what to believe from these reports right now. You would think in testing the evacuations they would’ve seen the response needed.

I'm sure they did...and I'm sure they heard about it from the response team...and that got promptly ignored b/c Disney didn't want to spend the money and figured this would never happen, at least for a long time...

And now those 1st responders also get the ultimate told you so...

 

[insureman]

Disney didn’t design these vehicles in the first place. Disney ordered an off the shelf D line system. The biggest hand Disney has in the designs were color and the wraps.

I don’t think they were designed to sit on the line for hours I’m just saying due to time of day and the level of emergency they may have decided the course of action they went with was the best for the time.

Disney did have options to pick from. Doppelmayr/Garaventa offers A/C as well as LED lights and sliding and louvered windows among other options.

 

[BaymaxFan78]

How they didn’t outfit these with A/C that is solar powered is beyond me. Tesla has the tech and the batter(ies) could live under the benches. The units they have that can power a whole house aren’t very large.

I even think Toyota has a solar AC in the Prius for when you are parked, but sitting in the car.

I don't think the batteries would be good under the benches. They have to be able to lift up to fit an ACV Inside.

 

[rteetz]

But, I would think Disney created the scope and specifications for a/the system for the vendors to bid/design to. Now whether Disney would specify a more elaborate (and costly) cooling system onboard would be my question.

I’m not sure if they picked Dopplemayr from the start? They are a leader in this type of system. I’m not sure other companies would have been able to handle an order of this size. We don’t have all of those details.

 

[ScubaCat]

All my knowledge of gondolas is with ski areas, but if it’s just a pass through, then yes, the line would have to be stopped to get an ECV gondola in there. I wonder if that may also be the reason there is a path to CBR from RIV - easier loading and unloading of ECVs at CBR b

I seriously doubt that's the logic. That's like saying "here, we'll sell you this expensive timeshare, and if you have mobility issues, simply go much farther to the next station to board.". I really think it was a budget cut. Either that or there's a logistical issue with a mid-line station that I'm not aware of. I'm the farthest thing from an expert on gondolas, I'm afraid. It still seems odd that they have the special loading platforms everywhere but one station.