Large Piece Falls off Monorail - Being Evacuated

[andysol]

1. Guy tries to tell a CM about a part that fell off, goes nowhere.
2. Guy posts on Twitter, calling out a news organization about what happened.
3. Without knowing that the guy couldn't get a CM interested, two bloggers tell the guy to tell Disney.

A. One, our own Len, does so in a calm manner and tags Disney's twitter account along the way, causing official Disney to send someone to get it.
B. The other blogger, Robb Alvey, goes off on the guy for contacting a news station first without contacting Disney. (After all, the guy did not, on Twitter, indicate he contacted a CM at first and was rebuffed, at least, not on the tweet with the pic.)​

So, who's in the wrong?

1. Disney CM who didn't do anything when approached. And maybe Disney maintenance if this wasn't a freak accident, like a branch falling onto the electric brush bar.
2. Guy for announcing to the world on a tweet that he's contacting a news station about it without indicating he tried first to contact WDW through a CM
3. Robb Alvey for going off on the guy as a sign of a cultural apocalypse
4. our own Spirit who took Robb's bad behavior to go off on all bloggers even though our own Len did absolutely nothing wrong​

Robb Alvey is the worst "blogger" out there. Period. Hands down the biggest and most disgusting stick in the community. I'm with @WDW1974 and @Tom Morrow here.
Spirit has nothing but good things to say about certain bloggers, namely @WDWFigment

But if you think the Disney mom blog/handout/gimme gimme bloggers that Disney uses to push their agenda, only have marvelous reviews about everything, rarely fully true information, etc deserve our respect, I disagree.
The touring plans and easywdws of the world are the exceptions- blogs that offer information without tons of fluff and half truths (looking at you "never a bad food review" Disney food blog).
The greatest exception? Theme Park Review. The worst of the worst of the worst. Don't agree with me? That's fine- I won't stomp my foot, whine and curse, ban or block you, then curse about you when you're gone. Don't believe me- post the slightest contradiction to his twitter, forum, Facebook, what have you. That's when he's not making fun of people with food allergies or laughing at people in wheelchairs. The guy needs to be exposed, not defended. Please.

 

[lnsemsf]

Robb was at a friend's wedding. I was given all sorts of rules, most notably "Don't tell him you go to Disneyland, he HATES people that love Disneyland" among others. My friend eventually planned a trip with some other people he became friends with from Theme Park Review, and Robb banned him and everyone who went on the trip from the site because he considered my friend's trip competition for his planned Theme Park Review excursions. He's human scum.

 

[peter11435]

but won't be renewing my Disney one.

Why? Because of this?

 

[raven]

I've worked 10 different attractions/operations, and they all have EXTENSIVE checklists every morning.

Disney doesn't just open its doors in the morning and say, "was everything still running last night? Good, then it'll probably keep running today."

A checklist is simply a guide. It means nothing if the employee just checks them off because it's a mundane task to do every shift. Mistakes and oversights still happen, even at Disney. This was the reason for the monorail crash years back.

Disney Engineering CMs (maintenance) starting rate 5 years ago was $27.50/hour. In Disney pay scale that means must be extremely valuable. But a lot of them are never checked up on and they will often sleep through their entire shift or watch television instead of actually working. Many CMs over the years have witnessed this.

 

[ford91exploder]

If you see a piece fall off a monorail and there isn't a CM near by, you have no way of knowing if it might compromise the safety of the monorail or not, so calling 911 seams sensible to me.

Calling 911 when a part falls off any mass transit vehicle is kind of a no brainer. If an employee saw it its a confirmation. If not its a heads up for immediate action

 

[ford91exploder]

Safety checks are not maintenance. Reliability is a measure of maintenance effectivity.

Finally, the safety record of DuPont UK has absolutely zero to do with Union Caribe India.

Precisely, the higher the reliability of a system the more effective its maintenance plan is, its why some airlines do 'routine' maintenance like filter changes on the ramp when due.

Sure you could push the filter for a few more hours but if it plugs then you have an aircraft down and need a replacement plus accomodating PAX so why not do it right and save the headaches

 

[MisterPenguin]

Robb Alvey is the worst "blogger" out there. Period. Hands down the biggest and most disgusting ****** stick in the world. I'm with @WDW1974 and @Tom Morrow here.
Spirit has nothing but good things to say about certain bloggers, namely @WDWFigment

But if you think the Disney mom blog/handout/gimme gimme bloggers that Disney uses to push their agenda, only have marvelous reviews about everything, rarely fully true information, etc deserve our respect, I disagree.
The touring plans and easywdws of the world are the exceptions- blogs that offer information without tons of fluff and half truths (looking at you "never a bad food review" Disney food blog).
The greatest exception? Theme Park Review. The worst of the worst of the worst. Don't agree with me? That's fine- I won't stomp my foot, whine and curse, ban or block you, then curse about you when you're gone. Don't believe me- post the slightest contradiction to his twitter, forum, Facebook, what have you. That's when he's not making fun of people with food allergies or laughing at people in wheelchairs. The guy needs to be exposed, not defended. Please.

You're arguing with me as if I was pro-Robb. If that's what you took from my post, you misread it.

 

[larryz]

If you find yourself in a situation where you're questioning if you should call 911, the answer is always to call. Better safe than sorry. If someone can call because they didn't get their chicken nuggets at McDonald's then a mistaken overreaction is nothing.

While true, a false call takes precious time and resources away from a real emergency.

Not to mention that the caller usually finds themselves paying a fine or facing small amounts of jail time for abusing the 911 system...

 

[larryz]

I think Cedar Fair parks are extremely safe...

Remember what happened with Son of Beast.

 

[21stamps]

Why? Because of this?

No, nothing to do with Disney at all. Not in a negative way.

Remember what happened with Son of Beast.

Yes, I know. Only went on it once when visiting the area, it still had the loop at that point. I loved it. That had to be one of the biggest financial losses for the company.

I've only been in two scenarios on an attraction, anywhere, when I was actually fearful.. spoke to an employee, as well as sent an email on one of them.
Once on a ride called King Cobra, I felt like my restraints weren't tight enough when going up the hill, and instead of holding my hands up, I spent the entire ride crying and holding the restraints on my chest, tightly. Told an employee as soon as I exited, and they checked the restraints directly after..chances on that one is that I just overreacted. (I was a kid back then, but had been on it several times before that specific time though, and always loved it)

The second, and truly terrifying, was 2 weeks ago when we were on The Beast.. there's a stretch after the first hill where you're racing along at ground level.. this specific part of the track does not have a chain link fence, only a small wooden one.. well, there was a deer standing directly next to the track, I noticed it right before we reached it., omg not even being dramatic- I seriously had images race thru my brain of what would happen if the deer jumped. Thank God it didn't.

Several people noticed it, and after the ride a few of us talked to one of the employees, I sent an email as well. Never in my life have I seen something like that..or even heard of it.

The truth is, a freak accident could happen any time each one of us gets on any kind of mechanical ride/car/plane/train etc. We all hope that a freak accident doesn't happen, and that the company that we are trusting has done everything humanly and mechanically possible to prevent an accident. But yes, they can still happen.

 

[UCF]

Not to mention that the caller usually finds themselves paying a fine or facing small amounts of jail time for abusing the 911 system...

Pretty much every person who has been in trouble for abusing 911 has explicitly been told to stop calling about these types of incidents first. People call (and are encouraged to call) for much less... They tell people to call 911 and not the utility if they smell gas, people are encouraged to call for minor fender benders, minor low value incidents of shop lifting, road rage incidents that haven't turned into anything, etc... They encourage it, and they'd rather receive extra 911 calls and for them to tell you "we aren't responding to this" then for you not to call them for something they would respond to. Just if they tell you "we are not responding to this incident" don't try to call again and try with another operator (unless you're pretty damn sure its seriously life threatening, even then, probably just call the appropriate responding agency directly and let them know what happened).

 

[kjb101791]

No, nothing to do with Disney at all. Not in a negative way.



Yes, I know. Only went on it once when visiting the area, it still had the loop at that point. I loved it. That had to be one of the biggest financial losses for the company.

I've only been in two scenarios on an attraction, anywhere, when I was actually fearful.. spoke to an employee, as well as sent an email on one of them.
Once on a ride called King Cobra, I felt like my restraints weren't tight enough when going up the hill, and instead of holding my hands up, I spent the entire ride crying and holding the restraints on my chest, tightly. Told an employee as soon as I exited, and they checked the restraints directly after..chances on that one is that I just overreacted. (I was a kid back then, but had been on it several times before that specific time though, and always loved it)

The second, and truly terrifying, was 2 weeks ago when we were on The Beast.. there's a stretch after the first hill where you're racing along at ground level.. this specific part of the track does not have a chain link fence, only a small wooden one.. well, there was a deer standing directly next to the track, I noticed it right before we reached it., omg not even being dramatic- I seriously had images race thru my brain of what would happen if the deer jumped. Thank God it didn't.

Several people noticed it, and after the ride a few of us talked to one of the employees, I sent an email as well. Never in my life have I seen something like that..or even heard of it.

The truth is, a freak accident could happen any time each one of us gets on any kind of mechanical ride/car/plane/train etc. We all hope that a freak accident doesn't happen, and that the company that we are trusting has done everything humanly and mechanically possible to prevent an accident. But yes, they can still happen.

The same thing happened to me on the Beast a few years ago in October. Just before the first tunnel, a deer was standing right next to the track. They must all be used to the noise and all.

 

[The_Jobu]

That's when he's not making fun of people with food allergies or laughing at people in wheelchairs.

Robb was at a friend's wedding. I was given all sorts of rules, most notably "Don't tell him you go to Disneyland, he HATES people that love Disneyland" among others. My friend eventually planned a trip with some other people he became friends with from Theme Park Review, and Robb banned him and everyone who went on the trip from the site because he considered my friend's trip competition for his planned Theme Park Review excursions. He's human scum.

This guy sounds like a real peach.

 

[Goob]

Yeah, what a nozzle.

 

[21stamps]

The same thing happened to me on the Beast a few years ago in October. Just before the first tunnel, a deer was standing right next to the track. They must all be used to the noise and all.

Wow.. that's crazy...and scary! I've probably been on that ride over 100 times, and had never seen or heard of a deer until a couple of weeks ago... of course I know there are deer in the area, I have them in my yard on a daily basis, but never thought of one being next to a roller coaster almost at arms length.

 

[flynnibus]

At this point, I'm just going to choose to read that as "LALALALALALALALALA" and smack ignore.

Did you hang out with fordexploder this week?

I think you need a snickers

 

[flynnibus]

They help provide a better path to ground to reduce fire and electrical circuit damage risk. Unless these new gondolas are also full faraday cages they won't offer any form of lightning protection and will have to be shut down whenever there's a storm in the area and also when it's very windy, just as the Sky Ride at Busch Gardens is.

They don't need to be faraday cages. They aren't the path to ground... so not at the lower potential... hence not attracting strikes.

Systems like these are usually shutdown to avoid having customers stranded in case of a ground failure... not for risk of cabins cooking customers.

Don't quote science you don't understand.

 

[flynnibus]

Would not be needed as a gondola tower is already a grounded metal object that would act as its own lightning rod.

You tend to still use them to direct the current since the flow itself can be damaging.

 

[flynnibus]

Hey, I have a question about cast member procedures. Is the cast member who initially reports an incident like this required to fill out additional paperwork, or engage in interviews or damage control, or something like that?

I guess what I'm asking is could the first CM have blown they guy off because they were going off shift soon and didn't want to get bogged down in the situation, or was it just genuine apathy?

CMs are trained to not take on situations themselves but to contact their chain of command or emergency services.

More than likely the CM probably just didn't realize how literal the guy was. These people hear thousands of stupid people statements a week

 

[MisterPenguin]

From www.911.gov (emphasis added):

An emergency is any situation that requires immediate assistance from the police, fire department or ambulance. Examples include:


• A fire

• A crime, especially if in progress

• A car crash, especially if someone is injured

• A medical emergency, especially symptoms that require immediate medical attention

Important: If you're not sure whether the situation is a true emergency, officials recommend calling 911 and letting the call-taker determine whether you need emergency help. ​