Disney Skyliner shutdown and evacuation - October 6 2019

[Bender123]

HIPAA does not allow personally identifiable health information to be shared. HIPAA would not prevent Disney from saying that some specific injury happened to an unnamed person.

Incorrect. HIPAA doesn't even apply to Disney, because it is not a health care provider, insurance provider or in an allied health service field.

 

[drizgirl]

HIPAA

Thank you.

 

[ABQ]

And it's HIPAA with two A's and one P. Sorry, I work in a related industry and it's just a pet peeve of mine.

 

[flynnibus]

An interesting bit is that according to BlogMickey... Disney still maintains that the gondola's that collided together were empty.

"UPDATE: 10/6 2pm – After receiving many comments that said the gondola cabins were occupied, we reached out to Disney and a spokesperson maintained that the both the blue gondola cabin, and yellow gondola cabin that impacted it were empty – containing no guests at the time of the incident. Original story continues below."

Closer Look at Damaged Disney Skyliner Gondola Cabin

Walt Disney World news, photos, and reviews! We provide you with daily news from the Walt Disney World theme parks and beyond

blogmickey.com

Not that I find Disney PR infallible... but I've had my doubts about the story posted on the Dis from the start. Elements like them just walking away didn't feel right.. or building in the cover 'disney doesn't even know who we are...'. I'm still highly skeptical of that first hand account being real.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

The cabins entering the station are clamped to a constantly moving cable. By the nature of the system, they enter the station at the same speed as they travel.

After they enter the station, they are detached from the cable, and must decelerate rapidly to the speed within the station. That deceleration is accomplished by contact with a series of tires spinning at decreasing speeds: the first tire in the series is spinning at the same speed as the cable is moving, and each successive tire spins somewhat more slowly, until tires spinning at station speed are reached. The last few feet of deceleration are at a lower rate, to allow the cabin to return to vertical before closing the gap from the preceding cabin.

The cabins are then moved through the station by tires spinning at the same speed (slightly faster around turns), until they reach the end of the load platform, where a series of tires spinning at increasing speeds accelerate the cabin to cable speed. Then the grip re-engages and the cabin continues on its journey clamped to the cable.

There are no actual brakes. While in the station, cabins move at the speed of whichever tires they are in contact with.

Well thank you for that analysis. I always wondered how those things worked. Obviously I know they don't speed up as they enter the station.. It just feels like it does to me because the gondolas in front of you have slowed down and you're coming in at an angle.

 

[drizgirl]

An interesting bit is that according to BlogMickey... Disney still maintains that the gondola's that collided together were empty.

"UPDATE: 10/6 2pm – After receiving many comments that said the gondola cabins were occupied, we reached out to Disney and a spokesperson maintained that the both the blue gondola cabin, and yellow gondola cabin that impacted it were empty – containing no guests at the time of the incident. Original story continues below."

Closer Look at Damaged Disney Skyliner Gondola Cabin

Walt Disney World news, photos, and reviews! We provide you with daily news from the Walt Disney World theme parks and beyond

blogmickey.com

Not that I find Disney PR infallible... but I've had my doubts about the story posted on the Dis from the start. Elements like them just walking away didn't feel right.. or building in the cover 'disney doesn't even know who we are...'. I'm still highly skeptical of that first hand account being real.

So you hear conflicting stories and immediately want to believe the Disney PR machine?

 

[flynnibus]

So you hear conflicting stories and immediately want to believe the Disney PR machine?

No - read what I said "I've had my doubts about the story posted on the Dis from the start". I always doubted the first hand account posted. I just didn't vocalize my doubts at the time.. and this reporting further strengthens those doubts to the point I bothered the thread with the statement on it. Is it that hard to follow along?

PR will mask and deflect, and not give the important details... but they try to avoid direct outright lies. Were people in the two gondolas or not is pretty tight... not much wiggle room.

 

[Heppenheimer]

HIPAA does not allow personally identifiable health information to be shared. HIPAA would not prevent Disney from saying that some specific injury happened to an unnamed person.

That "unnamed person" could easily be identified, though, with a little bit of investigation. Hence, they would probably err on the side of caution and not release details.

 

[danlb_2000]

HIPPA. Disney can't comment publicly on any injury a guest may have sustained, if they are even privy to the details in the first place.

On top of what others have said, Disney reports the details of all injuries that require hospitalization...

https://www.fdacs.gov/content/download/81386/file/Exempt-Facilities-Report-July-2018.pdf

 

[monothingie]

So you hear conflicting stories and immediately want to believe the Disney PR machine?

What incentive do they have to lie. It’s something that if they were being misleading would be easily verifiable.

 

[drizgirl]

No - read what I said "I've had my doubts about the story posted on the Dis from the start". I always doubted the first hand account posted. I just didn't vocalize my doubts at the time.. and this reporting further strengthens those doubts to the point I bothered the thread with the statement on it. Is it that hard to follow along?

PR will mask and deflect, and not give the important details... but they try to avoid direct outright lies. Were people in the two gondolas or not is pretty tight... not much wiggle room.

I'm skeptical when I hear 2 conflicting stories like that as well. But my answer to it is to not believe either side, but to mentally back up and wait for clarification. It usually follows.

Yes, it's hard to believe Disney would lie. But I could see them later saying there were unaware of the occupants and later learned of them once they had time to sift through all the info they gathered after the fact.

What incentive do they have to lie. It’s something that if they were being misleading would be easily verifiable.

Disney is highly incentivized to lie at the outset, to quell fears over their high dollar new system. Then they can quietly come out later and correct the story when the spotlight isn't quite so bright.

 

[BEARSHOUSE4]

If tried and true then it wouldn't of happened. And don't say could be user error. All these systems have built in redundancies to account for user error.

I’m more leaning towards material defect, design error, manufacturing error, installation error.... or a combination as most accidents usually are

 

[flynnibus]

That "unnamed person" could easily be identified, though, with a little bit of investigation. Hence, they would probably err on the side of caution and not release details.

HIPAA is not a general privacy law. It's regulation for medical industry in how they protect and disclose patient medical information. It is limited in scope to medical providers, medical insurance, and those that handle those processes at employers.

It has zero application outside of those 'covered entities'

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Boardwalk keeps getting “resort skyliner” buses that go to Pop, Art, and Caribbean. Unclear why.

They had them last week because people were walking to the skyliner station in the back of the park only to be told it was down. This happened after Epcot closed so no one was able to go back into the park to get up front to get the buses. They were directing people over to Boardwalk to get a bus. Everyone knows the Skyliner is down now so not sure why they’re still doing the buses from Boardwalk.

 

[techgeek]

I’m finding this idea that people should be self-restricting themselves from riding (based on claustrophobia, heat exhaustion susceptibility, possibly needing medication in the next 3 hours....) to be problematic.

Are there any Safety, Accessibility and Guest Policies posted for Skyliner? Any rider requirements or medical restrictions listed? I can’t find any on the website (unlike a normal attraction page which has height requirements / medical restrictions, etc). Are any posted in the stations?

I don’t believe there are any restrictions posted for the monorail, for a comparison.

If guests are not advised of any restrictions, then why should they be expected to invent their own based on their own self-assessment of their abilities?

 

[ImperfectPixie]

HIPAA is not a general privacy law. It's regulation for medical industry in how they protect and disclose patient medical information. It is limited in scope to medical providers, medical insurance, and those that handle those processes at employers.

It has zero application outside of those 'covered entities'

Yup. And you can add special education to that list.

 

[monothingie]

Disney is highly incentivized to lie at the outset, to quell fears over their high dollar new system. Then they can quietly come out later and correct the story when the spotlight isn't quite so bright

You tend to lie about things when only you have full control of the information being given out. Something like this can be verified independently in many ways and ultimately leads to more suspicion and scrutiny if not properly and truthfully answered.

 

[monothingie]

PR Rule 101: Don’t say anything.

 

[xdan0920]

I’m finding this idea that people should be self-restricting themselves from riding (based on claustrophobia, heat exhaustion susceptibility, possibly needing medication in the next 3 hours....) to be problematic.

Are there any Safety, Accessibility and Guest Policies posted for Skyliner? Any rider requirements or medical restrictions listed? I can’t find any on the website (unlike a normal attraction page which has height requirements / medical restrictions, etc). Are any posted in the stations?

I don’t believe there are any restrictions posted for the monorail, for a comparison.

If guests are not advised of any restrictions, then why should they be expected to invent their own based on their own self-assessment of their abilities?

Common sense?

 

[flynnibus]

If guests are not advised of any restrictions, then why should they be expected to invent their own based on their own self-assessment of their abilities?

Are there signs that say "if you are afraid of heights, don't enter this glass elevator"? Or "if you are afraid of heights, don't go onto this deck" ?

Point is yes, people are expected to make their own assessments of their capabilities in many life situations. At what point do you draw the line on what kind of phobias or medical conditions that NEED to be disclosed?

If you can't discern what the Skyliner is before boarding... well... you have bigger issues than any sign will fix.