So as I'm reading though this thread, it seems like some people have decided that one can *only* find fault with Disney *or* the guests in the car for their action/inaction. Can't someone find something that was done wrong by both? They're not mutually exclusive.
First and foremost, the door opening is a MAJOR issue and is thoroughly the fault of Disney, whether that be (potentially) from maintenance cuts, multiple faulty sensors, the actions of the maintenance workers who worked on the door before it left the station and anything they did/didn't do, operating procedures that were/weren't followed, etc. (I have zero knowledge about the actual cause, this is all pure speculation, but I'm sure the complete cause will come out after inspections by Disney and/or the NTSB)
The doors have sensors. If a train is in motion and a door sensor trips, even for just a moment, the train is supposed to E-stop. The pilot then can assess the situation and act accordingly. I was on a train where someone (who was at the other end of my car) leaned against the door hard enough that it tripped the sensor. The train stopped, the pilot got on the intercom to tell the person to stop leaning on the door. It took three announcements for the guy to realize they were talking to him. (The third announcement being something like "This train cannot move until you get off the door. Please move away from it now.")
Once the train was in e-stop, the pilot would've been able to assess and go from there. A mirror check should've shown the wide-open door. Even if they didn't see that, an open door would've stayed in alarm after announcements. Perhaps the pilot would've asked over the intercom for "someone in car 2 please pick up the emergency phone at either end of the car"
In emergency mode, they could've proceeded in override to the next station at a slower speed. (Those trains jostle back and forth a bit on the curves between World Drive and Epcot) Since the door opened not long after leaving the TTC, they may have been able to coordinate a reversal back into TTC.
Of course none of that happened. That train should have already been braking before the door had fully hinged open. That's a major issue, and that's entirely on Disney. It's pure luck that this happened when the car wasn't packed full.
So now let's move to the passengers in the cabin and how they reacted after the door opened.
To those who are bashing the videographer for taking the video: don't. I agree with those who say that a clear video of this was the best way to get it across the Disney, the NTSB and the public. People are talking about it, which is a very good thing.
The guest who kept people calm and reminded everyone that no one was in immediate danger was also good thinking.
But I also agree that *someone* in the cabin should have used the intercom to call the pilot right away. Let's pretend that the train wasn't on the Epcot beam, but rather on one of the MK beams and the door popped open as the train was approaching the Contemporary. I don't know for certain but I'm not entirely sure that an open door would make it through the openings in the Contemporary. So now you possibly have a heavy monorail door getting sheared off by the wall, getting jammed in something, smashing windows, causing building structural damage, falling debris on Guests below, etc etc etc.
But perhaps those Guests inside were just thinking "Well, there's a station coming up, we'll tell them then...."
Whatever happened to "If you see something, say something"? There's something out-of-the-ordinary happening, report it to someone higher up than you, which in this instance is the pilot of the train you are on.
-Rob
