Lawsuit against Disney in fatal monorail crash apparently settled

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news...t-monorail-dismissed-20110328,0,3158956.story

By Anthony Colarossi, Orlando Sentinel
4:18 p.m. EDT, March 28, 2011

A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the mother of a Walt Disney World monorail worker killed in 2009 while he was on the job has been voluntarily dismissed, according to court records.

Part of the court record is now sealed, but an electronic records shows the case was "dismissed pursuant to settlement after hearing."

Austin Wuennenberg, a 21-year-old Disney monorail pilot, was killed July 5, 2009, when two monorails collided. His mother, Christine Wuennenberg, filed suit against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts early last year.

Later in the year, Christine Wuennenberg, filed court documents accusing her son's former boss of "flippantly" vacating his duty, creating a dangerous situation that "was virtually certain to result in injury or death."

The crash occurred about 2 a.m. near the end of a workday. A monorail train was backing along a track switch that was supposed to re-align but didn't, switching the monorail from the resort's Epcot line to a short spur leading to a Magic Kingdom line.

The switch never re-aligned, so the train wound up driving in reverse, smashing into a second train piloted by Austin Wuennenberg.

Disney has since said that the monorail pilot was told to go in reverse and that, before the collision, there was an incorrect report that the track switch had been aligned properly.

 

[Micca]

I don't view Disney as the "big bad corporate beast" but I certainly hope Austin's family received an amount that will in some way ease their burden in the years to come. Sad deal all the way around.

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

I am surprised by this and a bit scared. This CM was not at fault in any way, a clear case of corporate neglect and yet...

 

[imstock]

If you delve into this you will find out what actually happened. It's no secret but there will never be a reference in the media as to why the go-ahead was given without verification of the realigned track. Do your research and you'll understand what happened. With that said, Disney had NOTHING to do with the accident and the fault falls squarely on a single mans shoulders. He no longer works for the company and is lucky if he isnt charged with negligence.

I am VERY happy to finally read that the family will be taken care of, and I pray that they are doing well.

 

[zulemara]

If you delve into this you will find out what actually happened. It's no secret but there will never be a reference in the media as to why the go-ahead was given without verification of the realigned track. Do your research and you'll understand what happened. With that said, Disney had NOTHING to do with the accident and the fault falls squarely on a single mans shoulders. He no longer works for the company and is lucky if he isnt charged with negligence.

I am VERY happy to finally read that the family will be taken care of, and I pray that they are doing well.

This post is full of misinformation. First of all, the problem was the person who didn't flip the switch in the shop. That person still works for the company.

Secondly the person I'm pretty sure you're referring to did NOTHING WRONG. He was not doing anything that wasn't against COMPANY POLICY at the time. The policy was to blame, not the individual who followed it.

Thirdly, both these people still work at Disney.

 

[WDWisTheBest]

I am surprised by this and a bit scared. This CM was not at fault in any way, a clear case of corporate neglect and yet...

I don't see how one could make the statement that this is, "...a clear case of corporate neglect..."

Could this have been an accident?

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

I don't see how one could make the statement that this is, "...a clear case of corporate neglect..."

Could this have been an accident?

No. Disney's system failed. Whether it was an employee asleep at the monitor or whatever. It's not a case of CM getting killed by a guest driver at WDW. This young man was doing his job. It is Disney's responsibility to maintain a safe workplace for their CM's.

 

[zulemara]

I don't see how one could make the statement that this is, "...a clear case of corporate neglect..."

Could this have been an accident?

no, it was negligent policies put in place largely in the 90s to increase efficiency and cut costs that lead to the crash

 

[imstock]

no, it was negligent policies put in place largely in the 90s to increase efficiency and cut costs that lead to the crash

One word. Perkins.

If that doesnt mean anything to you, then you are the one whos misinformed and I am certain it has nothing to do with our company's policy. I'm not putting anything else out there, and again suggest people do their own research.

EDIT: And it's my understanding that the gentleman I am refering to, however lightly, no longer works for the company. That part may be wrong.

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

One word. Perkins.

If that doesnt mean anything to you, then you are the one whos misinformed and I am certain it has nothing to do with our company's policy. I'm not putting anything else out there, and again suggest people do their own research.

EDIT: And it's my understanding that the gentleman I am refering to, however lightly, no longer works for the company. That part may be wrong.

Infrared video survelience and DOT monitoring protocalls. If these mean nothing to you, then...

 

[zulemara]

1. It was not against company policy to be off property on a lunch break
2. it was not company policy to have someone at monorail central at all times and especially during track switches
3. It was not against company policy to be running the operation while on lunch break wherever you may be as long as your location is allowed by company policy
4. They used to power up the rear cab and staff it with a pilot so the train was never driving blind. In the 90s that was changed to increase efficiency and cut costs.
5. Yes, he still works for the company, search the HUB and you will find him

6. why doesn't anyone point the blame at THE GUY WHO DIDN'T FLIP THE DAMN SWITCH???

There were several procedures in place to prevent this sort of thing, but the policies in place allowed the procedures to be ineffective and when everything lined up, you had a freak accident. This is clearly an issue of policy not individuals to blame(even the guy in the shop was doing too much at once which could be argued was a cost cutting measure so again...policy)

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

Infrared video survelience and DOT monitoring protocalls. If these mean nothing to you, then...

I hope this joke was transparent enough...

Thanks Zulemara, as always well constructed, detailed posts. Always appreciated by me.

 

[zulemara]

I hope this joke was transparent enough...

Thanks Zulemara, as always well constructed, detailed posts. Always appreciated by me.

I'm glad they are appreciated I get tired of miss-information being spattered all over the internet about this issue and blaming the wrong person.

 

[Oglet]

If you delve into this you will find out what actually happened. It's no secret but there will never be a reference in the media as to why the go-ahead was given without verification of the realigned track. Do your research and you'll understand what happened. With that said, Disney had NOTHING to do with the accident and the fault falls squarely on a single mans shoulders. He no longer works for the company and is lucky if he isnt charged with negligence.

I am VERY happy to finally read that the family will be taken care of, and I pray that they are doing well.

Wrong, even Bombardier advised the use of a rear observer while reversing a train, this was something that should have been in place according to the manufacturer of the trains and something Disney did not put into place prior to July 5th, 2009.

In regard to the people involved and their status with the company, that information is incorrect, look through the documents and cross reference the names on the hub. In regard to the whole Perkins thing, It was somewhat of a common practice that Disney were well aware about, I still don't fully blame the manager who was offsite that night.

Disney had everything to do with this accident, Disney wrote the policy that was being followed that night, Disney trained the people involved, Disney owned and operated all the equipment that was involved (trains, cameras, radios etc etc)

There were so many things that happened that never really should have happened, if any one of those things did not happen then we might not even be talking about this today.

I could make a list a mile long of people to blame, there is a bit of it go be shared around, however I feel the driver of Pink has somehow seemed to escape much criticism, Austin really couldn't do much as you cant simply turn a monorail into reverse and move it quickly, especially if the train was moving forward. If a monorail is put into reverse while moving forward it triggers what is called a propulsion... Its basically where the 2 groups of motors become confused and lock up, from there the train doesn't go anywhere until further steps are taken.

Yes, we can blame the guy who didn't move the switch, blame the manager on duty that night, blame the CM's on the platform for not killing power if we want to go down that route we also need to blame the guy who was driving Pink. Personally the driver of Pink shares a lot of the blame in my opinion, despite the horrible conditions of the cab he could have and should have known something was wrong and stopped his train. If the switch was being moved as it should have been, he would have got a RED MAPO as the switch was being moved plus a whole bunch of popups saying loss of 600V etc etc, after a minute it would have all started to return to normal.

It was a horrible accident that never should have happened plain and simple.