Monorail Accident

[tinkerblonde11]

Wow this is so shocking. Well that just shows that anything can happen to anyone anywhere. My prayers go out for the Monorail driver and his family and anyone involved in this incident.

Even in the Happiest Place on Earth, sad things happen

 

[saint71]

Statements from actual pilots that have told me they crashed inside the station. The picture where they're outside is in fact the trains being taken to shop!

the trains are both still in the station.... they have covered areas of the transportation and ticket center.

 

[LoriSue]

Do you really think that's appropriate?

Was just thinking the same thing

 

[bingie]

This gets at the crux of my confusion. The video in the station indicates that the driver of Purple was still in the cab. People are shouting out to him. If the collision occurred outside the station, why would you move the train into the station? (And how would you?) If the trains are scrunched together and the driver of Purple is not (I assume) responding, would it not be ill-advised to push into the station fearing that more damage could be done to the cockpit?

This was the reason it actually made more sense to me that the move happened after evac, but again, there's no way to know right now until we have some facts.

Exactly the original reason for my confusion...

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showpost.php?p=3614601&postcount=255

Is it "obvious" that the collsion occured in the station? Since Reedy Creek is not there yet (who coordinated the move back into the station)... The video seems to have been taken when it just happened...

Yet they pushed it outside the station (due to the pic) but now it's reported still in the station?!??!?

 

[jcraycraft]

Very sad indeed... our thoughts are with the family and friends.

 

[Dskipper]

i just saw sky video from a news chopper. the roof hatch to the of back monorail purple was still open. that tells me to move purple back into the station someone jumped into that backcock pit and reversed purple maybe? wow hope that didnt have anything to do with the cm dieing. wow i think some proto calls were kind of thrown out the door this morning. wesh.com showing the chopers veiws

 

[mousefanwhat?]

wow.

This accident is so unfortunate. I wonder what the investigation will turn up. It just seems so strange with all the safe guards and what not involved with the monorail system.

 

[AstareGod]

With all of the safety precautions and everything else on-board the monorails to ensure that they are a safe distance away from each other, I'm willing to bet that the driver was passed away before the monorails collided.

That thought crossed my mind too, but after reading the entire post in-depth, even if a MAPO override was in effect, the pilot would have had to keep the override switch pressed. If they let go of the override button, MAPO would kick in and apply the emergency brakes. If the driver were to fall unconscious, whether due to death or not, I think it would be extremely unlikely for the override to still be active. Of course, this applies only if MAPO was working correctly - and if the driver was not able to keep the button actuated and MAPO was working correctly, the train would have e-stopped.

 

[brkgnews]

Very sad' What will this mean for the future of the Mark VI line? Does this mean the Mark VIII will be coing sooner than expected.

If I were willing to predict, I'd estimate that the following changes will be made...

----- PURE SPECULATION -----

- Max Speed allowed during a MAPO Override speed will be reduced down to 10MPH (which is the same speed allowed when there's a door alert and the pilot is unable to visually verify).

- Maximum Shift lengths will be reduced (or implemented), much like those in place for commercial pilots and truck drivers.... Read More

- Mandatory retraining for all pilots.

- Installation of a GPS-based system (or similar system) that shows pilots where other trains are on the line

- Maaaaaaaaybe prohibiting guests in the cabs.

----- PURE SPECULATION -----

 

[timeman]

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the CM who was killed in the accident. Cfnews13.com now has a photo on their site of the driver that was killed. Hopefully we will find out what happened officially and why it happened.

 

[GymLeaderPhil]

I imagine that after Reedy Creek tried to extract the pilot and that all passengers were removed from Purple, they might have had to move Pink further into the station to safely reach the pilot of that monorail.

 

[Dskipper]

I imagine that after Reedy Creek tried to extract the pilot and that all passengers were removed from Purple, they might have had to move Pink further into the station to safely reach the pilot of that monorail.

more then likely pink just went out of the roof hatch walked the monorail till they came to a car sitting inside the station and went back down that roof hatch and out of the mono rail.

 

[Krozar]

After viewing the video that was posted, I was surprised to see only one Monorail driver around. I guess at that late time most other cast members were already off the clock? Also, where was security? To see those guest milling around, video taping, was surprising. It would seem that there were guests maybe hurt/stunned or whatever in the purple train and that is why they were still there. :shrug:

Late late Concourse after Epcot is closed is often manned by 3 people if 3 trains are on the Epcot beam. Concourse will get 2 trains as theirs. Somebody swaps out to work platform. Almost all the traffic is going to MK, the later park. The unload side doesn't require anybody there directly because the driver ensures the platform is clear and unloads wheelchairs/ecvs. The only traffic going to Epcot is for car parking. We screen people at that time of night.

I respectfully disagree. I'm not saying run 4 at once, but it'd be nice to have an extra to pick up the slack when one needs some downtime. Also, ferries can dock at more than just TTC and MK (who both have 2 ferry docks)

There is only ONE ferry dock at MK and TTC =/

Does anyone know the conditions to allow the monorails to go past the MAPO or whatever its called to pull the monorails into the garage? If the monorails are able to get so close to obstacles and other monorails back in the garage, maybe computer issues allowed this monorail to ignore the monorail ahead and continue as if it was pulling into the garage.
Just a thought.

Still has to be held down. Turns your thumb square after a while.

Can I assume they would have Bombardier come in to repair or do they do this themselves? Or would this extensive damage need the car shipped back to Bombardier?

AFAIK Disney and Bombardier are not on good terms. Apparently Bombardier was the unfortunate target of one of Eisner's schemes. The rumor in Rails is that it had to do with the trains being too far above the platforms after Disney did all that work on them for the Mark VI introduction. Truth of that? It's CM chatter. So naturally it's infallible information. We check it once, check it twice, and check it again.

 

[Lee]

With all of the safety precautions and everything else on-board the monorails to ensure that they are a safe distance away from each other, I'm willing to bet that the driver was passed away before the monorails collided.

No. That is not what happened at all.

 

[Krozar]

ok if pink was switching tracks there is no need for it to go backwards. only way to switch track is to go stright. like it was heading to epcot. go out past the curve. switch to spur. then go backwards on spur and switch to mk express line sit in express station untill storage track is switched then store train. dont make since unless pink didnt know it was still on epcot beam and not spur. maybe they didnt switch the track to spur quick enough and it just backed right up back into the same station as purple was coming in and hit purple and shoved it back out of the station so other wards both trains could have been using over ride to get the night over with to get pink off and purple in the station to unload and store.

Nope

 

[tomm4004]

I imagine that after Reedy Creek tried to extract the pilot and that all passengers were removed from Purple, they might have had to move Pink further into the station to safely reach the pilot of that monorail.

I would tend to agree, except that the video showed the family on Purple standing by an open door in the station as if they had just excited. A couple family members reentered to get a stroller. Now it's possible they were evacuated on the track and then waited for the train to pull in to the station to collect their stuff, but from watching the video it did seem as though they were just getting off. People were asking if there was anybody left on the train, and someone said the driver (or pilot).

 

[DawnBerg]

My heart is just sick for this young man's family. I can only hope his family was already informed before his name was released. I can't imagine losing a child never mind hearing about it on the tv. I came on this morning to plan for our upcoming trip but I just don't have the heart to do it today. This is such a tragedy. My condolences to all involved.

 

[marni1971]

Wow. Just wow. Just in from work where I got a message to this.

Lots of speculation. Lets not do that now. We all have theories. Let us just think of all those all involved, guests, CMs, families.

 

[brkgnews]

I honestly haven't read through all the pages of this thread, so this MAY have already been posted... but here's a cruddy cell phone pic of a map of the overall mono track layout. It's from a mono pilot training manual dated August 1995.

Thought it might help the discussion. I'll try to get a decent scan later.

 

[CaptainMichael]

There is only ONE ferry dock at MK and TTC =/

There are two gangways on each side of the lake. Have you never seen 2 ferry boats docked at the TTC late at night or early in the morning?