Monorail Accident

[cdunbar]

We have 21 year old aviation pilots. There is no reason at all why a 21 year old can't be highly proficient at what they do. Your jump to assume Disney is negligent is crazy when you have absolutely no idea of the facts.

Steve I couldn't agree more I mean I have an old friend whose youngest brother just turned 17 and is a pilot. I mean I think using age as a discrimination factor is just WRONG. Don't judge us all because a few of us have been less than perfect.

 

[hrcollectibles]

I don't think so here... The video shows guests calling out to the driver.. if that was the case, they wouldn't bother...

Or maybe they thought he was still alive and alert but could not see inside the cab

 

[hrcollectibles]

Anyone know why the Monorail was running at 2 in the morning? Was Epcot having Extra Magic Hours?

 

[LudwigVonDrake]

^ July 4th holiday.

 

[peter11435]

Anyone know why the Monorail was running at 2 in the morning? Was Epcot having Extra Magic Hours?

Epcot had EMH until 12:00am that night and The Magic Kingdom closed at 1:00am.

 

[HMF]

But where this relates to the topic I don't know. WW2-era 21 year olds wouldn't have found themselves in control of a monorail, so it's not really relevant.

The monorail would not be invented for at least 10 years' by Germans ironicly.

 

[FutureKid]

I dont get it. Why would a monorail ever need to "BACK UP". They have operating controls on both ends. As far as I'm concerned shouldn't the monorail always be going forward? With the driver facing the forward motion??

:veryconfu

 

[PhotoDave219]

It could be that Monorail Purple overran its block and that the MAPO system stopped it just south of the station where Monorail Pink then collided into it.


If you look at the bottom of the image you can see the bus stop covering and the backside of the gift shop. That means the monorails were south of the station and north of the ticket booths. The hold position, from my memory, is south of the ticket booths.

I'd need someone from monorails to actually say where the hold point and blocks are for the Epcot beam. I'm not willing to speculate on things I don't know or have good sources telling me.

Either way, Two things:

1 - That photo shows it clearly overtop of a guest area south of the station. Somehow the trains were moved into the station, where they were still today.

2 - Monorail Pink shouldn't have been going backwards on the Epcot line south of the station if it was supposed to be switching onto the spur which is on the other side of World Drive, irreguardless if Purple was too far forward.

 

[Brian_B]

I don't think I could ever ride in in the front of a monorail again...

Good, less people on line in front of me

 

[JROK]

I'd need someone from monorails to actually say where the hold point and blocks are for the Epcot beam. I'm not willing to speculate on things I don't know or have good sources telling me.

Either way, Two things:

1 - That photo shows it clearly overtop of a guest area south of the station. Somehow the trains were moved into the station, where they were still today.

2 - Monorail Pink shouldn't have been going backwards on the Epcot line south of the station if it was supposed to be switching onto the spur which is on the other side of World Drive, irreguardless if Purple was too far forward.

How would the move the trains into the station?

 

[indigo]

asdf

Regarding the photo of the two monorails of the TTC esplanade, I'm hearing two conflicting reports. One was that the initial crash pushed to two trains out there from the station and that Pink then pulled the two trains forward into the station where the video was then shot. The other theory is that the trains came to rest inside the TTC area and that the photo was taken when the monorails were backed up so that an evacuation of the driver from Monorail Pink could be made. Both reports could be true, but I'm leaning toward the 1st since the doors of monorail purple had not yet been opened and you can see they were pried open during the rescue attempt.

-John
The Disney Blog

 

[hrcollectibles]

I can't believe that the Sentinel included this in their latest update. This is what passes for journalism?

"Park guest Scott Shea, of Winter Springs, had already heard about the accident when he arrived at the park Sunday morning.

"I heard it happened at 2 a.m.," said Shea, who was visiting Walt Disney World with his family. "Just must have been due to tiredness."

What is the possible purpose of including this? Should they not be trying to get the real cause from investigators?

Is it me or has local news really stunk lately no matter where you live?

And again I do not see the problem with seeing the video of the aftermath. You cannot see anything that I would consider bad. We have video footage of worse tragedies

 

[magicmaya]

Good, less people on line in front of me

I know accidents happen but i'm really really really really scared...'til the point I might cry...I'm not ready to die yet...I enjoy my life
I'm sorry, I'm really emotional right now.If the monorail crashed right in front of me, I would never look at another monorain again.And if I don't look at another monorail that means no disney park visits.

 

[LudwigVonDrake]

:zipit:

 

[PhotoDave219]

How would the move the trains into the station?

I have no idea but clearly they did. We have a photo of them out of the station and we have video from today of them being in the station.

I've heard too many conflicting things on that detail to speculate.

 

[hrcollectibles]

It most certainly does.

I'm not questioning The Mom's decisions to remove the link but it provides clues as to what happened, and where.
Call me immoral but I may have photographed it as well, had I been there.

I think a lot of us would have...Even if they do not want to admit it

 

[MyLittleAngels]

Really, the over-dramatics are silly. Monorails are one of the safest forms of transportation in the world. You get into cars regularly, don't you?

 

[majortom1981]

I know accidents happen but i'm really really really really scared...'til the point I might cry...I'm not ready to die yet...I enjoy my life
I'm sorry, I'm really emotional right now.If the monorail crashed right in front of me, I would never look at another monorain again.And if I don't liik at another monorail that means no disney park visits.

First off dont be worried cars are still much more dangerous then the monorails. I would stil lride a monorail everyday over a car.

Also does anybody know the company who makes the monorails? Is this a disney engineered thing or is it a third party who made the system?

This looks like its a glitch in the system . Can a monorail operator take manual control of the overrun system? IF not this could be something like a sensor problem.

 

[Tom]

I dont get it. Why would a monorail ever need to "BACK UP". They have operating controls on both ends. As far as I'm concerned shouldn't the monorail always be going forward? With the driver facing the forward motion??

:veryconfu

Forward and Reverse are relative terms on the monorail. If the driver is in CAB-6, he becomes forward. If he's in CAB-1, that end becomes forward.

The monorails do indeed drive "backwards" (the direction opposite of where the pilot is sitting) on many occasions - mostly to switch beams and head to the shop for the night.

They have to drive past the switch in the track, wait for it to switch, and than back up through it. If the train is now on the express loop, it will have to drive around to the MK switch, pass it, and then back up again to head back to Shop.

All of these back-ups and track switching tasks are done by using the pilot's MAPO Override button - which is the single largest flaw in this otherwise foolproof system.

No ONE person should ever be able to single-handedly override a failsafe system, which is what it appears Pink did before barging into the Concourse only to find Purple still sitting there, Holding.

Tis a shame. A VERY safe system can instantly appear to be un-safe to the naive beacuse of some terribly bad decicions and actions by humans. Here we are, analyzing this, and Purple Pilot has died at no fault of his. He was sitting in Holding like he was told to, when Pink come crashing into the station.

I can't imagine how Pilot Pink feels right now. He has the single worst set of issues to deal with right now. I feel more for him than anyone else. He has to live with the fact that he killed someone due to his, or someone else's negligece - and maybe even be drug into a big silly lawsuit over it all.

I'm sure some Managers/Controllers will be taken down in this whole mess too, and I bet they feel almost as bad as Pilot Pink. It's just a mess right now, but hopefully it all comes out for the best for those who lived.

And I'm very happy that it happened at 2am when all the families weren't leaving the parks. I would hate to have had all those children have to witness something like this in their life, let alone at WDW.

I anxiously await the next legitimate news report on this incident.

 

[lincolnjkc]

I think that this COULD BE an accurate statement. This person said the CM was exceptionally nice. Normally, customers/guests pay special attention to their nametag. It's just human nature.

I'm horrible with faces and worse with names, but when I visited Holywood Studios a few weeks back (my first time at the Florida resort; I grew up in SoCal) a particular cast member at Tower of Terror made a fantastic impression on me...I had no problem remembering his name and hometown (even stopped by guest relations on my way out)--actually, I still remember his name.

It is an unfourtunate incident and I hope he rests in peace and his family gains closure; when I first heard about the age my first thoughts went to a College Program Monorail CM I had a conversation with when I was leaving MK just after midnight; I don't remember that gentleman's name but I'm almost positive it wasn't the same person.

Lincoln