Monorail Riding

[fakereadhed]

Not to stir up trouble, but what do you think would happen if you were sitting in the other sections of the monorail when that accident happened? My first thought was I'm so glad nobody was sitting/standing behind the driver too- or babies in strollers. That said, Disney has a great safety record and I'm looking forward to riding the monorail anywhere they will let me.

 

[katscradle]

Oh this is such sad news.
We were away for the weekend and came home last night to find out about this.
My thoughts and prayers go out to Austin's family, friends, and co-worker's at this time.
I am hoping that Disney does not suspend the practice of letting guests ride in the front, in the future.
This has been something that we have done with our buy's every time we go to Disney.
However I do think Disney is doing the right thing by the other monorail drivers by temp. suspending rides in the front for the time being.
The other driver's need some time to grieve for their co-worker.
They need some time just to cope with what has happened.

 

[MineMail]

I read on another board that the fronts/ends of the trains are designed to "crush" upon impact, the way a car's front end will in an accident. It's to protect the passenger compartments and prevent derailings. Obviously, anyone in the front compartment itself is in danger. Seems to me that they should have a safety zone inside, but perhaps the pilot who died didn't even see the other train coming?

That design would justify the "no riders" situation, but I hope not. I really enjoy riding up front; I've only been able to do it three or four times in the last 20+ years.

I feel like the "no riders" is more to prevent discussions about the accident with the current drivers. It would be a very uncomfortable situation, sitting there with a couple of kids while the mother grills you about safety issues and the Accident. Just mho.

I would hope that one of the changes they make is to have the monorails performing this "out of service" maneuver double-staffed - one pilot or at least an "observer" at each end.

If a pilot had been in the rear pilot cab, s/he would have SEEN the purple monorail in the station and hit the brakes, averting the tragedy.

Adding some kind of "superbright lights" to be used during these maneuvers would also help. Backing up a trailer in the dark is tricky and you don't have great visibility. Looking at those very-small sideview mirrors in the photos, I wonder if that's a design flaw?

I know it's more expensive to make changes, but isn't it worth it to prevent this kind of thing from happening ever again?

May Austin rest in peace and I hope his family/friends can eventually find solace. Prayers and condolences.

 

[chickie]

I read on another board that the fronts/ends of the trains are designed to "crush" upon impact, the way a car's front end will in an accident. It's to protect the passenger compartments and prevent derailings. Obviously, anyone in the front compartment itself is in danger. Seems to me that they should have a safety zone inside, but perhaps the pilot who died didn't even see the other train coming?

I was kinda wondering if a bumper system would have prevented this tragedy. But this makes sense, as an impact of a crash on the passenger cars would be much more drastic if bumpers were in place, and there could have been many more injuries for passengers if they were in place. It's very sad, though, that the driver is in such a vulnerable position. I always thought that this would be my dream job at Disney - to drive a monorail every day.

This accident was truly a tragedy, and I feel very deeply for Austin's family, friends and coworkers. I'm so very sorry that this happened.

 

[PleaseStandClear95]

Slightly off topic - BUT...

There were times when the cab was not loaded.
During driver training, bad weather, if anything on the train was operating 100% correctly, and in some cases if any train on the same beam was operating 100% correctly.

While the front cab was usually loaded there were these instances that did occur often.

The driver's first responsibility is to drive the train, then listen and talk on the radio, then spiel to the guests on board, THEN talk to those in the cab.

I always enjoyed having a cab full of folks unless we were under some strange weather clearance protocol or "manual" clearances and then I could not imagine trying to concentrate on driving and clearance with 4 folks asking questions and having fun.