Monorail Crash Kills Operator

[JimMIA]

Disney has released the identity of the CM. I'm not sure DIS policies would permit posting his name, so I won't, but he was a 21 year-old student at Stetson University in Deland. He apparently lived in Kissimmee.

 

[JimMIA]

Jim, I'm sorry you've had to see any sort of a collision. That has to be one of the toughest jobs. Thank you for doing what you do.

It's like being a cop (my first, and real, career). 99% of it is helping people, but some ugly stuff comes with the territory. We build defenses against the ugly stuff, but hopefully we never get used to it.

 

[jco_direwolf]

I have to say the front of the monorails don't seem to have any reinforcement in the nose. They just seem to be just fiber/plexi glass. They look very neat, but like someone else said they don't seem to be designed to take any impact.

I'm a computer engineer and have never worked for/at Disney, so I don't have any specific knowledge of monorail design.

The explanation posted sounds plausible. Because it seems that there was a series of human failures, early in the morning at the end of a shift.

johno

 

[doconeill]

Since there has already been some discussion regarding speed related to the damage, let me throw out a few things...I am not an accident re-creation engineer, just making observations...

- A large heavy object traveling at 15mph is going to do a lot more damage than a small, light object. It's a matter of momentum. There could easily be that much damage at 15mph or less because the trainset isn't going to just stop on contact. Either the momentum gets transferred to the receiving object in a perfectly elastic collision (which is never the case), deflected (at least partially the case), or absorbed (other portion).

- It appears as if the nose of Pink struck and then rode up the nose of Purple until it reached at or near the cockpit window, which gave and allowed the cockpit intrusion of Pink's nose. To facilitate it further, the cockpit window of Pink also gave out and allowed the intrusion of Purple's roof. Little momentum was probably absorbed at first until after the intrusion.

- I'm sure there is plenty of data from both monorails and the station that Disney and NTSB investigators will have access to.

Unfortunately the first reaction is likely to be that no guests will be allowed to ride in the cockpit for the foreseeable future. I'm thankful none were riding up front at the time.

 

[cruise-o-matic]

Yes, sad, very sad. I am heartbroken for this young man and his family.

I love to ride up front of the monorail and I've said many times when I retire, that's what I would like to do. I always seem to find out more about the monorails each time I ride and there are a ton of safeguards in place. There is even a "deadman" button on the controller, so if the pilot becomes incapacitated and releases his hand from the controller, the monorail will stop. I hope they don't go away from letting people ride up front.

From what I have read, it seems that the purple pilot backed into pink. Mouse Planet has the most logical explanation of how this happened. http://www.mouseplanet.com/8896/WDW_Update_Special_Report_Walt_Disney_World_Monorails_crash_killing_one

Since they apparently do not put pilots in the rear cabin when performing this maneuver (which they probably will from now on), I am assuming the pilots are instructed to look for the beam on the "right". For whatever reason, fatigue, inexperience, the purple pilot did not notice the beam was still on his left and kept backing up.

(On the inexperience issue - Pilots bid their schedules similar to airline pilots. Those with more seniority have first dibs on the more desirable schedules and routes. The platform CMS are also pilots and they rotate driving the monorail during their shift and may only drive 60-90 minutes and be on the platform for the rest of the time. So it could also be the case that those operating the monorail at this time could have the some of the least experience. I'm not sure if those in the control tower take turns piloting too. This is speculation on my part, though, but could also be a contributing factor.)

 

[anetnmike]

to see the picture of the two trains was so surreal...
as someone who loves Disney it is shocking and so wrong
as a parent, knowing that the young man who lost his life was only 21, it is unbearably sad
as a critical care nurse and wife of a firefighter/paramedic I can't begin to tell you how that feels -that picture was so hard to see
our prayers go his family, friends and fellow CMs
our hope is that the cause of this accident can be found and measures will be taken to make sure it cannot happen again

 

[JimMIA]

- A large heavy object traveling at 15mph is going to do a lot more damage than a small, light object. It's a matter of momentum. There could easily be that much damage at 15mph or less because the trainset isn't going to just stop on contact. Either the momentum gets transferred to the receiving object in a perfectly elastic collision (which is never the case), deflected (at least partially the case), or absorbed (other portion).

I think your analysis is pretty close as far as the transfer of forces is concerned. The Purple train would also have moved backwards down the track which would have dissipated more of the force.

A heavy object does cause more damage than a light object if both are moving at the same speed. However, in the formula, speed is much more important. The actual formula for the energy created by a crash is Energy = Mass (weight) X Velocity (speed) squared.

So as the weight increases, force increases in a linear, mathematical way. But since velocity is squared, any increase in speed increases force geometrically. That's why highway safety professionals say "speed kills."

For example, if the train weighed 10,000 pounds and was traveling 15 MPH, the energy would be 2.25 million units. If you double the weight, the energy would double to 4.5 million units. But if you keep the weight the same and double the speed to 30 MPH, the energy would be 9.0 million units.

Doing a little quick math, if you just increase the speed from 15 to 21 MPH, you get more impact than doubling the weight of the train (4.41 million units). You're doing the same thing if you drive 21 MPH in a 15 MPH school zone, incidentally -- more than doubling the damage you will do if you hit something.

[The trains obviously weigh far more than 10,000 pounds (two SUV's weigh 10,000 pounds). I'm just using that number to make the math easy and understandable.]

Another important factor would be if the Purple train had been moving at all. We're assuming it was stationary because the actual collision occurred inside the station. But if the Purple train was departing and had been moving even 1 MPH, the impact would increase because you'd have the weight of two trains moving in opposite directions. If that train were going 5 MPH, the impact would have been much greater.

Whatever the math, this is obviously a terribly sad event and I'm sure we all have the CM and his family in our thoughts and prayers.

 

[doconeill]

I think your analysis is pretty close as far as the transfer of forces is concerned. The Purple train would also have moved backwards down the track which would have dissipated more of the force.

Yes, there would be some momentum transferred - I think I switched what I was saying part way through the sentence. If it was perfectly elastic, Purple would have been accelerated to the same velocity as Pink and pushed down the beam while Pink came to a complete and sudden stop. Obviously friction must be taken into account as well.

 

[LIDisneyFan]

I was shocked to see how little was done in the first minute (from the youtube video) by the Disney attendant. I am not sure if there are rules about trying to help someone out when you are not sure of the circumstances, but it sppeared the other guests were doing far more to see if the (unfortunate) driver was injured.

 

[JimMIA]

I was shocked to see how little was done in the first minute (from the youtube video) by the Disney attendant. I am not sure if there are rules about trying to help someone out when you are not sure of the circumstances, but it sppeared the other guests were doing far more to see if the (unfortunate) driver was injured.

Having been there, done that many times, I can tell you that the tiny video clip doesn't tell the full story of the rescue, or even the most important part.

In EMS, most lay people focus on the skills of the EMTs and medics. But the truth is, the real key to managing an EMS situation is prioritization -- doing the most important thing first, second most important thing second, etc. A crash scene may look chaotic, but if things are being done right, it's really a complex ballet with a whole bunch of moving parts.

The most important words in that entire video are the first words I heard. Someone asks about EMS and the answer is "They are already on the way."

Nothing gets started until the CM's on the scene call 911. Seconds are critical, and they obviously did the most important thing immediately.

In this crash, the most important thing after calling 911 was to ensure that the scene was safe, and then to determine how many people were involved. In this case, there were only a few potential patients. If there had been 200 people on that train -- whether they were injured or not -- it would have been a very different situation requiring enormous resources coming to the scene.

Once the scope of the situation is determined, the next steps are to remove all ambulatory patients, and then triage anyone who could not move on their own. Triage is obviously the job of the trained EMS folks, so the CM's job was to locate people in the train and get them out if they could walk. That is exactly what the CM's were doing in a calm and organized way.

It's great that the visitors tried to help, and they did appear to be the first people who noticed that the cab of the Purple train was occupied. But the real heart of the matter is getting the EMS people there as quickly as humanly possible with the right equipment and skills to get to the patient and eventually get him out and to a hospital.

In reality though, that crash was simply not survivable. No matter what anybody did, the outcome was going to be the same.

 

[CanadianGuy]

RE: Damage, Force, Mass etc

When you think about a locomotive engine going just 15 miles an hour but how much 'weight' is behind that 15 miles an hour and then plow that 100,000 lbs x 15 miles an hour into a parked Yugo.. That Yugo doesn't have a chance.

The monorail in motion.. still weighs thousands of pounds and is very firmly not allowed to bend sideways and therefore the force has two directions it can go.. forward and potentially vertically.. that's pretty much what happened. The trains were never meant to touch, collide or even come near each other.

The cabins aren't designed for ANY impact.

Sad.

Knox

 

[mbaucla]

This is so sad

 

[thefirebuilds]

I was shocked to see how little was done in the first minute (from the youtube video) by the Disney attendant. I am not sure if there are rules about trying to help someone out when you are not sure of the circumstances, but it sppeared the other guests were doing far more to see if the (unfortunate) driver was injured.

aren't these things 660v three phase electric? I wouldn't be anywhere near a broken electric train.

 

[Seabean]

My condolences to the family, very sad indeed.

One question... it would seem the key error was NOT throwing the track switch?


(in other words, instead of backing onto the express rail, Pink simply went back onto the Epcot rail where it had just been, and backed into Purple which was now sitting there... because the switch wasn't thrown)

 

[redrosesix]

I think your analysis is pretty close as far as the transfer of forces is concerned. The Purple train would also have moved backwards down the track which would have dissipated more of the force.

A heavy object does cause more damage than a light object if both are moving at the same speed. However, in the formula, speed is much more important. The actual formula for the energy created by a crash is Energy = Mass (weight) X Velocity (speed) squared.

So as the weight increases, force increases in a linear, mathematical way. But since velocity is squared, any increase in speed increases force geometrically. That's why highway safety professionals say "speed kills."

For example, if the train weighed 10,000 pounds and was traveling 15 MPH, the energy would be 2.25 million units. If you double the weight, the energy would double to 4.5 million units. But if you keep the weight the same and double the speed to 30 MPH, the energy would be 9.0 million units.

Doing a little quick math, if you just increase the speed from 15 to 21 MPH, you get more impact than doubling the weight of the train (4.41 million units). You're doing the same thing if you drive 21 MPH in a 15 MPH school zone, incidentally -- more than doubling the damage you will do if you hit something.

[The trains obviously weigh far more than 10,000 pounds (two SUV's weigh 10,000 pounds). I'm just using that number to make the math easy and understandable.]

Another important factor would be if the Purple train had been moving at all. We're assuming it was stationary because the actual collision occurred inside the station. But if the Purple train was departing and had been moving even 1 MPH, the impact would increase because you'd have the weight of two trains moving in opposite directions. If that train were going 5 MPH, the impact would have been much greater.

Whatever the math, this is obviously a terribly sad event and I'm sure we all have the CM and his family in our thoughts and prayers.

RE: Damage, Force, Mass etc

When you think about a locomotive engine going just 15 miles an hour but how much 'weight' is behind that 15 miles an hour and then plow that 100,000 lbs x 15 miles an hour into a parked Yugo.. That Yugo doesn't have a chance.

The monorail in motion.. still weighs thousands of pounds and is very firmly not allowed to bend sideways and therefore the force has two directions it can go.. forward and potentially vertically.. that's pretty much what happened. The trains were never meant to touch, collide or even come near each other.

The cabins aren't designed for ANY impact.

Sad.

Knox

The only thing I would add to these calculations is the impact of surface area. Since the two objects were not flat, the force was at first concentrated over a very small area. It was not until the point of impact had reached the passenger compartments that the two objects were essentially flat, thus dispersing the force over a greater surface area ie. why the moving train didn't just keep going. It's like the difference between being poked by a knife (where the surface area has been reduced by sharpening) and a blunt object.

Just wanted to add re the bystanders assisting -- they seemed perfectly prepared to deal with the situation -- wouldn't be surprised to find out they were off-duty police, firefighters, or army.

 

[SassyCat]

My husband and I were in Disney this past weekend. We turned on the news yesterday morning as we were getting ready to go to MK and saw this story. We were totally shocked. I believe I just stood there for a couple of minutes with my mouth dropped open. You just don't think of this happening on the monorail. I am so sorry for the CM and his family - this is just such an awful accident.

It really freaks you out when you think about how you were on the same monorail car only a few hours earlier. If an accident was going to happen, I am so thankful that this accident did not happen when the monorail had been fuller. I can't imagine how bad that would be.

It was really surreal being around the parks and not seeing a single monorail moving around. There was at least one monorail just sitting at the MK monorail station. As we left on the Magical Express, we saw a monorail on I believe it was the Epcot track just sitting in the middle of nowhere. It was so strange.

 

[skier_pete]

Terrible tragedy.

I am involved in some accident investigation - and the one thing I've learned is that in any serious unexpected accident like this at a facility that is considered safety concious - which Disney would be - there is very likely multiple failures that led to this accident. Very rarely is it a case that a single mis-step leads to this.

In other words, it wasn't one person doing one thing wrong. It was one person did something improperly, while another person did something different improperly, while a third electronic failure occurred...or something like this. Mistake upon mistake upon mistake.

The fact is, accidents like this usually lead to an even safer system...so hopefully some good will come out of it. I don't picture they will completely suspend passengers riding in the cockpit...but it could happen for a period of time.

SkierPete

 

[redrosesix]

Terrible tragedy.

I am involved in some accident investigation - and the one thing I've learned is that in any serious unexpected accident like this at a facility that is considered safety concious - which Disney would be - there is very likely multiple failures that led to this accident. Very rarely is it a case that a single mis-step leads to this.

In other words, it wasn't one person doing one thing wrong. It was one person did something improperly, while another person did something different improperly, while a third electronic failure occurred...or something like this. Mistake upon mistake upon mistake.

The fact is, accidents like this usually lead to an even safer system...so hopefully some good will come out of it. I don't picture they will completely suspend passengers riding in the cockpit...but it could happen for a period of time.

SkierPete

Just want your opinion on this observation. Since it's probably safe to assume that this was the worst possible set of circumstances ie. if 2 trains were headed toward each other, the pilots would presumably have time to apply their brakes, the fact that none of the passengers were seriously injured would mean that only the pilots are in any real danger in the case of collision?

 

[JimMIA]

Very rarely is it a case that a single mis-step leads to this.

In other words, it wasn't one person doing one thing wrong. It was one person did something improperly, while another person did something different improperly, while a third electronic failure occurred...or something like this. Mistake upon mistake upon mistake.

I'm sure you are right. I've been reading some posts on a news site from a former WDW monorail driver, who said similar things. His main point was that even if the Pink train had been cleared to override the automatic safety system and also cleared to back up, there should have been at least three additional safety precautions in effect.

The first is that there is supposed to be a CM with a handheld radio at the switching point who watches the tracks to ensure that the train is in fact being directed to the correct track.

The second is that there is always supposed to be another driver riding in the cab at the rear of the train, watching backward. (That was obviously not the case in this accident or we would have had two fatalities instead of one.)

And the third is the driver is supposed to be watching behind the train through a rearward periscope, although this former CM said that would be very hard to do because of other things the driver would be required to watch in front of the train at the same time.

If any one of those precautions had been actually followed, it seems like the crash would not have happened.

 

[Lowillian]

My husband and I were in Disney this past weekend. We turned on the news yesterday morning as we were getting ready to go to MK and saw this story. We were totally shocked. I believe I just stood there for a couple of minutes with my mouth dropped open. You just don't think of this happening on the monorail. I am so sorry for the CM and his family - this is just such an awful accident.

It really freaks you out when you think about how you were on the same monorail car only a few hours earlier. If an accident was going to happen, I am so thankful that this accident did not happen when the monorail had been fuller. I can't imagine how bad that would be.

It was really surreal being around the parks and not seeing a single monorail moving around. There was at least one monorail just sitting at the MK monorail station. As we left on the Magical Express, we saw a monorail on I believe it was the Epcot track just sitting in the middle of nowhere. It was so strange.

Wow, you took the words right out of my mouth. We were getting ready to go to MK Sunday am also and saw it on the news. We couldn't believe it. When we went to breakfast, no one knew anything about it. Our waiter went to the back and asked and he told us that the driver was in the hospital. My husband and I alreay knew he had passed away. It was very strange and sad. Not anywhere near the same, but it reminded me slightly of how it felt right after 9-11 when planes were not flying. When we left to go the the airport, we saw that monorail out by itself also. I'll never forget it.

Our thoughts and prayers to everyone involved.