Work Tractor Collides with Monorail Lime

[bethymouse]

"No one ever is to blame!" Howard Jones '80s singer

 

[PhotoDave219]

Any thoughts, @PhotoDave219 if this story will get more publicity or will it just die down?

I kind of agree with @unkadug that in the eyes of the public it wont matter if its minor or major, they will just hear the words "wreck" and "monorail". A news story would most likely involve images of the fatal accident from a few years ago as well which will have the libs all riled up. They'll be calling Washington for a Monorail Reform bill. lol. jk. Glad nobody was seriously injured though. And I blame Meg.

I would say that there will not be any major publicity on this as this is the first I'm hearing about it…

It's unlikely to get anything but it certainly makes you question if we have learned anything about safety…

 

[monorail81]

I believe that the brakes could fail on the tractor. Generally, those things stop on a dime. I'd be interested to see a picture. It's not the first time a tractor hit a train, either. Let's try not to blow this TOO much out of proportion.

 

[SoupBone]

Slight problem with your whole "this is the end" thing... The public probably don't and won't know about this. Also how many catastrophic failures have happened recently, because I seem to have missed them.

Yes the system needs replacing- any 40 year old system would. I'm not excusing the fact that this happened. Chances are the brakes needed replacing, so shame on them if they've been negligent. However, it's not like the monorail is ready to collapse.

Does the State of Florida have its own state-level OSHA type agency or are they inspected by the federal OSHA?

 

[deix15x8]

I believe that the brakes could fail on the tractor. Generally, those things stop on a dime. I'd be interested to see a picture. It's not the first time a tractor hit a train, either. Let's try not to blow this TOO much out of proportion.

I don't want to steal someone else's pictures, but on this site you can see photos from 1991 when a work tractor and monorail collided during a film shoot. A surprising amount of damage for what was likely a minor fender bender as they were probably both moving and in the same direction. If this was stationary being hit by a moving one the damage is likely worse. From this though we can see just how easily the cosmetic shell of these trains shatter.
http://www.bigfloridacountry.com/monorailaccidents.htm

 

[Monorail Lime]

Ouch!!

 

[Goofnut1980]

Let's just buy new monorails... Make those equipped with the the automatic workings

 

[StageFrenzy]

I would say that there will not be any major publicity on this as this is the first I'm hearing about it…

It's unlikely to get anything but it certainly makes you question if we have learned anything about safety…

So I'm guessing we will be on lime lookout for the next month or so. If they really want to keep it quiet they would repaint teal and send it out as lime. "No Monorail lime did not suffer any accident, see here it is."

 

[Tom]

Given what is being reported here (none of which is official), we can assume that Monorail Lime will get patched up fairly quickly and guests will be none the wiser. And aside from Jason reading about it here, it shouldn't make the news (especially when there is no photographic proof of the accident - at least by the public).

This, in my opinion, bears no correlation to how the rails are run. A work tractor was driven into an unloaded, parked monorail. Why? We don't know. But it was done outside the Operations of Monorails. An outside source hit a monorail, just like if a tow truck backed into your car while it was parked innocently in a parking lot.

OSHA should not be involved unless someone got injured enough for there to be a lost time report. If nobody missed any work due to an injury, there's nothing to report and nothing for anyone to investigate. It's purely an internal issue for Disney to resolve.

 

[wdw71fan]

Cab from teal is being swapped onto lime tomorrow night.. it will then enter the paint shop.. and be re striped as lime.. teal with then be repaired at a flower pace... There is some morbid irony to the whole thing.... The cab being moved to lime will be one its 3rd train in 5 years....

 

[JimboJones123]

I believe that the brakes could fail on the tractor. Generally, those things stop on a dime. I'd be interested to see a picture. It's not the first time a tractor hit a train, either. Let's try not to blow this TOO much out of proportion.

When you have been on a monorail where CMs had to leapingly slam their bodies into the doors to close them, you hope everything gets blown out of proportion.

The system simply isn't safe any more.

I dread a major problem and fear what that major problem could be.

 

[note2001]

When you have been on a monorail where CMs had to leapingly slam their bodies into the doors to close them, you hope everything gets blown out of proportion.

The system simply isn't safe any more.

I dread a major problem and fear what that major problem could be.

I believe you have more to fear from your local subway system than Disney's monorails. Case in point: US DOT S&S division actively studied WDW's monorail system for months to use as a model to gauge city subways against.

 

[peachykeen]

Cab from teal is being swapped onto lime tomorrow night.. it will then enter the paint shop.. and be re striped as lime.. teal with then be repaired at a flower pace... There is some morbid irony to the whole thing.... The cab being moved to lime will be one its 3rd train in 5 years....

So since it was Cab 1 that was damaged, I assume they will swap Cab 1 of Teal onto it. That means Cab 1 of Lime will be the original Cab 1 of Pink.

It was sometimes strange for me to drive Teal Cab 1, knowing what those controls had been a part of.

 

[Matt_Black]

There is some morbid irony to the whole thing.... The cab being moved to lime will be one its 3rd train in 5 years....

I believe you have more to fear from your local subway system than Disney's monorails. Case in point: US DOT S&S division actively studied WDW's monorail system for months to use as a model to gauge city subways against.

Do you have a source or citation for that? Not doubting you, I just think that would be an interesting read.

 

[Figment2005]

When you have been on a monorail where CMs had to leapingly slam their bodies into the doors to close them, you hope everything gets blown out of proportion.

The system simply isn't safe any more.

I dread a major problem and fear what that major problem could be.

Are you kidding me? The doors are ran by air pressure, and not much at that. If a strong crosswind is passing through the train when the doors are closing then there will be some that need assistance. The only reason anyone would have to "slam their body" into the door would be if they were annoyed. Nothing more than a little extra nudge is needed for the door to seat and lock. Please quit over dramatizing a completely functional system just because it is in poor shape cosmetically.

 

[unkadug]

Are you kidding me? The doors are ran by air pressure, and not much at that. If a strong crosswind is passing through the train when the doors are closing then there will be some that need assistance. The only reason anyone would have to "slam their body" into the door would be if they were annoyed. Nothing more than a little extra nudge is needed for the door to seat and lock. Please quit over dramatizing a completely functional system just because it is in poor shape cosmetically.

The cosmetics is what is seen by 99% of the paying public that use the Monorails.

The cosmetics is what the public will judge the whole system on.

 

[Figment2005]

The cosmetics is what is seen by 99% of the paying public that use the Monorails.

The cosmetics is what the public will judge the whole system on.

That may be true, but the majority of folks on this site should understand that cosmetics don't make something dangerous. When the "uninformed public" makes a stink, maybe something will happen. Thing is the "uninformed public" is just that, uninformed, so their opinions rarely have any merit.

 

[JimboJones123]

Are you kidding me? The doors are ran by air pressure, and not much at that. If a strong crosswind is passing through the train when the doors are closing then there will be some that need assistance. The only reason anyone would have to "slam their body" into the door would be if they were annoyed. Nothing more than a little extra nudge is needed for the door to seat and lock. Please quit over dramatizing a completely functional system just because it is in poor shape cosmetically.

The first three pushes by two different dudes didn't do it. So the third was a leaping body slam by a 300 pound dude.

But hey, let's just claim I was making it up???

I'm sorry, should I not report reality???

 

[PhilharMagician]

Brakes failed and the tractor rolled all the way to the TTC and hit hard enough to cause that much damage? Bull puckey! After the initial decline coming out of the CR there is a long flat run before the TTC station. Someone was not paying attention and did not realize a train was parked at the TTC or they were running the tractor full throttle down the declining track from the CR to see how fast they could get the tractor going and hit the brakes too late.

The general public will never know about this. Heck, if you ask 100 guests in WDW if they heard about the deadly monorail accident a few years ago I bet less than 5 would know anything about it.

 

[Millionaire2K]

Exactly, lack of proper maintenance on the whole system is causing catastrophic failures to the point that anything less than complete replacement will be a failure in the public's eye.

This system that continues to "wreck" in the public's opinion will lead to lack of faith in the ability of TWDC to operate the same antiquated trains and beams.

This will be interseting to follow.

hahahahaha! I bet you say this when you're missing a sandwich from your order at McDonalds.