Monorail trains collide at WDW; 1 dead

[blackcauldron85]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/loc ... 9336.story

So, so sad. The incident is still under investigation, so later we'll learn what happened. It's a little extra freaky for me, since I was on a WDW monorail last night. It's just so horrible. The article says that this is the first fatal accident in WDW monorail history.

[pinkrenata]

There has been at least one death on the Monorail System in Walt Disney Land, according to park historians.

Great job getting the other park's name correct, newspaper article!

On a serious note, scary news. The articles aren't making clear what exactly happened. Was the monorail stopped at the time it happened?

[PeterPanfan]

Wow, this is definitely scary and sad.

[blackcauldron85]

Here's another article:

http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2009 ... river.html

I'm not sure if one was stopped, but it says that one monorail train slammed into the other. It would be sad regardless, but the driver who died was only 21 years old.

[goofystitch]

Disney has yet to release a statement about why the monorails crashed, but when I heard the news I couldn't believe it happened. The monorails have a system, called MAPO, that stops them if they get too close to another train. Basically, it forces the breaks and stops power to the engines and the pilot has not control over this. There is a way to override the system, but I don't know why anybody would do this. Some theories on the crash include MAPO having an error, the breaks not working, the driver being asleep (it was 2 AM), etc... On theory is also that the pink monorail was backing up and the purple monorail wasn't aware of this.

On another forum, somebody posted a video taken from the loading dock, where the monorails were moved to to get the 6 guests off. I won't repost it because it was hard to watch, but I'm sure you can find it by searching if you are interested.

[blackcauldron85]

Some speculation as to what happened:

http://thedisneyblog.com/2009/07/05/one ... ail-crash/
(This article, as well as many articles on this incident, will be updated throughout the day.)

Some early thoughts and speculation:

Here are my initial thoughts on what happened based on where the two monorail trains ended up in photos I’ve seen. The pink train was not in station when it was hit by the purple train. Either the pink train had backed out of the station or was stopped on approach in a non-typical holding zone close to the TTA station. The approach to TTA from Tomorrowland has semi-obscured visual of the TTA station and the track ahead as there is a long sweeping curve around a grove of trees. How the purple train advanced through the two reserve hold points is unknown. Via the MAPO safety system, brakes are supposed to auto apply (however the operator can override that manually and restart the train). If MAPO failed, or was overridden, and there was insufficient visual of a clear track ahead a may have proceeded at too quick a pace to stop before hitting the train ahead, especially if it is out of position. Either way its very sad.

That video of the Disney Monorail crash scene is sad. Hard to imagine how the pilot, or any guests in the nose cone, could survive. We should be thankful this was a 2AM run and no families were in the nose cone with the pilot. The fact that the family had a stroller with them, and was 6 members instead of 4, probably meant they weren’t offered a ride with the pilot and saved their lives.

The next question is what were the EPCOT line monorails doing running at 2AM last night. The parks were running extended hours the last two nights due to the holiday. Some cast members were reportedly pulling double shifts. It’s not clear if monorail pilots are allowed to work a second shift as a pilot, but just working after midnight when you’re used to being off before then can mean you’re working when you’re normally asleep.

I want to stress that this is not a regular occurrence on the monorail lines at Walt Disney World. Since the new trains were added in 1989 there have been no train to train collisions during normal operation. There have been a series of incidents where the nose cone windshield glass popped out during operation, plus many were so badly scratched you could barely see the track in front of you, but Disney had been replacing all the windsheilds on the trails.

[stewie15]

This even made it to our Toronto news station this morning. Such a sad thing to happen. My condolences go to the drivers family.

[blackcauldron85]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/05/u.s.disney.monorail/

The witness said one monorail train rammed into the back of a stationary train.

[goofystitch]

It is very sad that this happened. My heart goes out to all involved and the family of the pilot, who has been confirmed as Austin Wenneberg, a 21 year-old cast member.

What is doubly sad is that it is looking like this was not a technical problem. This is a quote from a Mice Chat user named NormalVisual, who claims he used to work on the monorail. He got this info second hand, so it is not guaranteed to be accurate.

The short, short version is that Monorail Central cleared Monorail Pink in reverse into the Concourse (the Epcot side of the TTC) station without being aware that Monorail Purple was still in the station. Pink was cleared with MAPO override, meaning that the driver would have disabled the anti-collision system (there are a variety of legitimate reasons for doing this), and would have been acting on faith that Central wouldn't have cleared him into a dangerous situation because it sometimes is difficult to see everything you'd want to in the cab mirrors, particularly at night on a curve such as the one he was backing along. For whatever reason, Purple just sat in the station without attempting to avoid the accident, and was struck by Pink moving at the full 15 mph allowed during MAPO override. From what I understand, the driver of Purple was a new transfer from another department. Why Central would not have made sure the station was clear before moving any trains is a bit of a mystery, but I've heard that no one was actually in the control console (the control tower-looking place at Concourse) at the time. To my knowledge, there were no electrical or mechanical problems in play here. Again, I have to stress that I'm relating what I've heard, and I was not there. This is a second-hand account from others more familiar with the situation.

It sounds like the crash happened at the station and that the monorails were then moved out of the station, where the famous photos were taken.

[Escapay]

This is so sad and still very shocking. Jane and I saw the video on facebook, and couldn't really believe something like that actually happened at TTC. My heart goes out to the CM's family.

albert

[zackisthewalrus]

That's terrible. I hope they get the problem fixed soon. It sucks that the driver was only 21.

[goofystitch]

I have been glued to Mice Chat where more people in the know have been talking about this. Here is what seems to have happened:

Around 2 AM, the purple monorail pulled into the loading dock at the TTC, where a family of 6 got on. The doors closed and the driver was getting ready to leave the station. At this same time, the pink monorail had been instructed to back up so he could go onto the other tracks. Once on them, he would have been able to take the pink monorail back to the warehouse where they are stored. However, due to an error of communication or a technical problem, the tracks never switched, causing the pink monorail to go back into the loading dock, where it collided with monorail purple, killing the 21 year old college program student that was driving it. Guests nearby came running to see what had happened and offer their help. The purple monorail had lost power, but the guests were able to pry open the doors to release the family of 6, which is right when a guest with a camera filmed this video. Somebody else took this photo:

According to eyewitnesses, about 10 minutes later paramedics arrived. They tended to the family that was unharmed and were able to pry the driver out of the cabin. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Then the pink monorail driver, who had been sitting in his cabin ever since, was instructed to back up so that he could get out. That is when the now infamous photos of the wreck outside the dock were taken:

The monorails are still at the dock. Disney has ceased operation of the entire monorail system, but will resume them tomorrow. Today, the accident has been investigate and OSHA has been present to inspect everything. Guests visiting the Magic Kingdom who parked at TTC were bussed to the front of the park for the day. It would appear that the ferry boat is not running and guests are not permitted anywhere near the monorail docks.

[xxhplinkxx]

I was coming to post about this too. Glad I didn't go to Disney last night. It's heart breaking what happened to poor Austin; he was so young.

[goofystitch]

I have a correction to the sequence of events I posted above. According to an eyewitness report, the purple train wasn't docked at the station. The guests got on the monorail at Epcot and had just pulled in and come to a stop when the trains collided. The collision sent the trains out of the dock, where the second picture I posted was taken. 20 seconds later, the driver of the pink monorail drove back into the platform with the purple monorail attached. That is when the people ran up to the dock to help out.

[goofystitch]

I have more news about the situation. It appears that both drivers had put their monorails in override mode. Somebody told the driver of monorail pink to override MAPO and go in reverse because the switch was on, when it was in fact off, causing him to continue in reverse on the Epcot track. Austin, who was driving monorail purple, got the MAPO alert on his way to the TTC dock and was also instructed to override MAPO and proceed. Again, there were only 6 guests on board and the idea behind this was to save them what would have been less than a minute for monorail pink to have gotten on the switch. Had they let monorail purple wait where it was supposed to, this whole incident would have been avoided. Instead of monorail pink crashing into monorail purple, the driver would have gone through the loading dock and stopped, now realizing that the switch wasn't on. He then would have gone forward and tried it again. But instead of making 6 people wait and doing what is safe, they decided to put the lives of everybody on board monorail purple at risk, killing the driver.

[Escapay]

Thanks for the updates, goofystitch.

It's so upsetting to hear that all this could have been avoided if they simply took an extra minute to clear things, instead of rushing and and overriding MAPO.

I can understand why they did shut off the overrides (it's late, they want to finish as soon as possible, so they cheat a little), and a few times in ODF we'd skip a few rules here and there to finish our closing shifts, but really, this is Disney Service Standards 101. SAFETY FIRST. It was careless and irresponsible of them.

albert

[Mr. Toad]

Absolutely terrible news. Prayers to the families involved.

[goofystitch]

I have what appears to be the final story of what happened. You can follow along on this map if you get confused.

Monorail pink had unloaded at the TTC Epcot dock and pulled forward, going around the curve in front of the switch. The driver radioed to control for the tracks to be switched so he could back up onto the Express Monorail tracks. Control radioed to shop, where the switches are located, and shop radioed to control that they had been switched. They hadn't. Control radioed the driver of monorail pink to override MAPO and go in reverse. The driver was expecting to go past the station on the Express line and was traveling under the assumption that he had made the switch.

At the same time, monorail purple was told to override MAPO and proceed closer to the TTC dock, where it stopped above the esplanade. This is where the actual crash took place. The driver or monorail pink, realizing he had hit something, pulled his train back into the station, towing purple behind him.

It is clear that neither driver is at fault, nor is the MAPO system faulty. The errors came from both control and shop. Shop incorrectly told control that the track was switched and control authorized purple to leave the safe zone on the tracks.

[blackcauldron85]

Walt Disney World to bring new monorail train into service
New train has been made using undamaged remains from two trains that collided over the summer
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business ... 2435.story
(via disneyreport.com)

[blackcauldron85]

Directing Disney monorails from restaurant lead to collision, lawyers say
http://www.laughingplace.com/Latest-ID-75166.asp