Monorail Crash at Disney

[Debbie]

No Monorail service today. My prayers go out to the families involved.

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/19954891/detail.html
CNN reporting: Breaking News: Deadly Disney World Monorail Crash


POSTED: Sunday, July 5, 2009
At 2am Sunday morning, Reedy Creek Emergency Services responded to a call at the Ticket and Transportation Center at the Magic Kingdom. Two monorails collided. 8 people were evaluated total following the crash. One monorail driver was killed. The other driver is fine physically. There were 5 to 6 guests on the monorail at the time of the crash. Disney World Public Relations tells Local 6 that they will release more information later this morning. They are on scene right now gathering information about the incident.

A witness tells Local 6 that he heard a huge crashing noise when the monorails collided. He was able to get pictures and video of frazzled guests walking off the train.

Another report indicates that a moving pink train hit a stationary purple train.

Local 6 has obtained dramatic pictures from the scene of the crash. Stay with Local 6 for more information about this crash.

 

[Tinkermom76]

Oh my.. that is so sad..

 

[canadaman]

That truly is sad. I wonder how it could have happened

 

[TreesyB]

that's very sad. i wonder if the other guests were in the front? that would be truly frightening.

 

[TimNDansMom]

What sad news to wake up to this morning!

 

[coastgirl]

Oh no. How awful for everyone, including all the people who will be mid-vacation today. Prayers for the family of the driver, the injured, and the witnesses.

 

[SandraC]

Oh no. How awful for everyone, including all the people who will be mid-vacation today. Prayers for the family of the driver, the injured, and the witnesses.

We were at WDW when two people died a couple years back. You had to be paying attention to know what was going on. Other than that, Disney was business as usual.

that's very sad. i wonder if the other guests were in the front? that would be truly frightening.

Yes, very sad. It could have been even worse thou...2am had far less people than 2pm July 4.

I'm sending prayers to the drivers family and friends.

Blessings, Sandra

 

[dancin Disney style]

Incredible....we heard about this on the radio driving home from Owen Sound this morning. They said something about this being the first accident in the 38 year history of the monorail.

Thankfully, there were only 8 passengers onboard. It could have been horrific. Very sad about the driver though.

 

[Ham Ham]

R.I.P. CM

 

[kimmiec]

how very sad, my heart and prayers go out to all involved

 

[iluvwesties]

Warning..... This video was posted on another thread on these boards, It is taken immediately after the accident and shows the passengers getting out of the monorail and guests and cast members shocked at what has just happened. Please don't view this with small children around, as it may be disturbing to them. Please don't watch if you feel you may be toubled by the video footage.... and please don't flame me for posting as this is already floating around on other threads,

http://www.clickorlando.com/video/19956043/index.html

My heart goes out to the poor CM and his family ::

 

[iluvwesties]

I've cut and pasted this from another thread discussing the accident.....

from miceage:



Hi guys,

I'm a former Mark VI railie, and I stay in touch with a fair number of folks in the department. Here's what I've heard. I'm going to stress that it's what I've heard, and I can't represent this as absolute fact. Take that for what it's worth.

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.

Okay, speculation time.

Why would Purple have just sat in the station and let himself get hit? Well, it was a new driver from what I understand, and when Pink got close enough to trigger Purple's MAPO system, it's quite possible that the driver of Purple freaked a little bit (any time a driver gets an unexpected red MAPO light, it gets their attention), and was so intent on looking at his console trying to figure out what was going on that he simply did not see Pink barreling down on him. I suppose it's also possible that the Concourse station didn't have power at the time, preventing Purple from leaving, but I rather doubt that was the case.

Why would Central clear a train into an occupied station? Inattention, most likely. As I said, I'd heard that Central was not at the console at the time of the accident. IMO, if this is the case, it's the root cause of the accident and whoever was Central should be strung up.

 

[SandraC]

Carol, thank you for your post. It's a little more clear now. Blessings, Sandra

 

[ferris198]

We were at WDW when two people died a couple years back. You had to be paying attention to know what was going on. Other than that, Disney was business as usual.



Yes, very sad. It could have been even worse thou...2am had far less people than 2pm July 4.

I'm sending prayers to the drivers family and friends.

Blessings, Sandra

How did they die ?

 

[braydensmom]

I think its pretty obvious something happened, the monorail will be shut down until the investigation is over with, and this could take several days. Being a main source of transportation for so many Im sure the majority of people visiting right now know whats going on.

It is very sad indeed. If you use Twitter, people are adding #Austin to remember the CM that was killed.

 

[SandraC]

ferris198, one man drown in Seven Seas Lagoon after an argument with his wife, alcohol was involved, the other guy was a CM that jumped from the top of the Contemporary Resort. I was at Disney and didn't hear anything there, I read it on the DISboards and then asked a couple of CM's about it and they told me the same thing the DISboards stated. S