Originally Posted By tiggertoo Holy Cow! <<LAKE BUENA VISTA, FL - Two monorail trains at Walt Disney World have collided killing the driver of one of the trains. It happened around 2am. Local fire officials say a monorail rammed into the back of another monorail at the Epcot transportation center. 7 other people were checked out by paramedics. Some of the employees who witnessed the crash said that crews used torches to cut the driver out of the monorail. No other details are available at this time.>> Copyright 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. <a href="http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local/story/Monorail-accident-at-Disney-World-kills-driver/XB8zPdeiKkWllIL_etVsJQ.cspx?rss=794" target="_blank">http://www.abcactionnews.com/n...?rss=794</a>
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Wow that is aweful news! My heart goes out to him and his family. I wonder if it were human error or technical due to lack of maintanence?
Originally Posted By -em There are no words- especially as I rode both Purple and Pink last night. Though I do wonder how the (*^% it happened because there are too many safeguards in place
Originally Posted By Bob Paris Could this be as a result of cost cutting? If it is, I hope somebody sues Disney bad.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones There have been collisions before, once between two trains and a train and one of those diesel maintenance things, but never this bad. This is the first fatal accident in the history of the Walt Disney World monorail system.
Originally Posted By brotherdave How horrible! Not knowing how the monorail's safety features are, is it possible that the driver just fell asleep given the late hour of the accident?
Originally Posted By vbdad55 Could this be as a result of cost cutting? If it is, I hope somebody sues Disney bad. you think you may want to wait to find out before jumping to this conclusion..?
Originally Posted By vbdad55 Most people might have a little concern over the driver- or if some safety system failed rather than the 'evil corporation' getting theirs in court
Originally Posted By WilliamK99 Could this be as a result of cost cutting? If it is, I hope somebody sues Disney bad.<< Wow, the body isn't even cold yet and you are making some broad assumptions....
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo actually, Bob wrote what I was fearing could be the cause, but since this is so new, I was willing to wait to hear more (plus I wanted to show some respect). But with all the cutting that has been going on (and we know the tragic impact that had with the Columbia and Big Thunder in Disneyland), it is an option.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 I know we have some people here with good knowledge of the systems involved -- is there a dead man's brake type system if something happened to a driver ? The location of the accident tends to lead me to a driver that either fell asleep, had some kind of physical distress etc. - I would think there'd be warning sounds as trains neared each other - and how would he not see the stopped train ?
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Agreed it is more likely to be a human error issue. No matter how we slice it, it is a horrible loss. And operationally, life will be challenging now I should imagine in getting the tourists to the MK.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 The Orlando Sentinel says the Monorail to EPCOT will be closed today - but did not mention a system wide shutdown - we'll have to see what they put in place. I am glad you agree- based on the scene of the accident - driver error sure seems to head the possibilities unless there was a brake failure.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 ^^^ which surely is possible- I just have to make the leap right off to link it to maintenance and line up the attorneys
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Well given that the current Walt Disney company bears so little relation to the firm I fell in love with, I stopped giving benefit of doubt when the Big Thunder accident happened. In all the years of running the parks, all accidents had been down to human error. Big Thunder and the Columbia showed that maintenance cuts could be a killer, litterly. I do think human error is far more likely, but I definately would not rule out budget cuts being a key here (whether electrical/mechanical) or this guy falling asleep to be sure to get more hours with all the cut backs.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 I'm not ruling it out either - just not hoping for it as the OP of the comment seemed to be...
Originally Posted By Rider 1 Picture of the monorail crash in this CNN link. <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/05/u.s.disney.monorail/" target="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/...onorail/</a>
Originally Posted By RockyMtnMinnie I am curious to know what happened. I know that on the steam trains, there is a system that would keep two trains from colliding. When a train is in one section of track, it triggers a red block to stop additional trains from entering that section. If the engineer were to go past the red block without stopping, the MaPo computer system would automatically trigger the emergency brake and stop the train. This system is tested every time a train goes out onto the track to make sure it is operating properly. I would think that there would be a similar system on the monorails to avoid collisions. Of all the accidents that could occur at the parks, I was VERY surprised to hear that this had happened.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 hopefully they'll be getting some info from the passengers....did the not stop at all ? Did they stop and then start before they were supposed to ? Were they going exceptionally fast ? Both on the right track ?
