BREAKING NEWS: Fatal Walt Disney World Monorail Crash

Tim

Tim

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Staff member
Reports are coming out regarding a crash involving two monorails at the TTC Monorail Station on the Epcot beam that killed one monorail pilot. ; According to the report, one monorail crashed into the back of another while at the station, killing the pilot who needed to be extricated from the wreckage. ; Our thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and family of the fallen monorail pilot. ;

The accident is still under investigation and not a lot of details have been released at this time.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL DETAILS

FIRST PICTURES OF THE MONORAILS HERE (may be upsetting)
 
Here's video from Orlando channel 9 news: http://www.wftv.com/news/19955324/detail.html

It was at Epcot's Monorail station not at TTC. ; Very strange. ; Had to be a huge mechanical failure. ; I've ridden on the front a few times on my last two trips. ; Anytime a monorail is still in station, the monorail behind it stops for the station to clear.
 
thats sad and suprising.
I thought the monorails had a distance safety sensor. I wonder if that failed or did the brakes fail.
I wonder if Disney will release what happened once they figure it out.
 
very sad indeed.

Craig, ; If I remember correctly they do have a safety sensor that requires them to remain at least two hold points apart on the beam. ; If the trains get closer than that, the breaks automatically stop the train. ;
 
The more tragic is that Pink backed into Purple apparently...at 15 mph. ; And the sensors were overridden.
 
From what I am reading they were in the TTC and Pink was backing to make the track switch to head back to the barn, and didn't realize that anyone was behind him since the safeguards are disabled during this transition. ; I am guessing this won't be the case after this investigation wraps up.
 
Poly, the local news just interviewed a former monorail driver and he offered the same explanation. ; Truly gruesome accident. ; I was completely shocked when I heard this news this morning. ; We were just at the July 4th Illuminations last night, but we did not use the monorail.
 
Horrible news...hits us all as Disney fans, where stuff like that just isn't supposed to happen. ; But eventually, it can happen anywhere. ; Gotta figure their overall transportation safety record is pretty amazing, considering the hundreds of millions (or billions) of guests transported over the years and number of track trips per year. ; Just sad that it had to end in a fatality rather than just some monorail damage.

Still...it could have been a full monorail, during the day, with guests riding up front too...gotta look for the silver lining.
 
"zackiedawg" said:
Still...it could have been a full monorail, during the day, with guests riding up front too...gotta look for the silver lining.
Click to expand...

That was my first thought... ; Thank God there weren't any guests in the cab
 
So the CM who was killed was in the stationary monorail and the other train backed right into his cab? ; Just awful and so sad for the family.
 
Yeah, that's what the current version of events are, and that the one family that was in Purple was being taken back to Epcot to look for their car.
 
Here is a picture of him from one of the other Disney Boards from someone who was just there.

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This is a very sad story indeed. ; :'( THe only positive news is that this did not take place at a time of day when the trains were loaded down.
 
The YouTube clip from someone I presume was part of the party on the station-docked monorail looked like pretty skeleton staff - the video only shows one station CM looking a bit frazzled (no surprise there...anyone would be) and several young men that looked like guests, first unloading from the monorail cars with bags and such, then one of them went with the CM to the cab of the monorail to look in the windows and try to get in the door or through the other monorail's windshield. ; As the video cut, one of the guests was trying to get on the roof of the monorail. ; This all had to be pretty close to actual impact, as there was no other response from CMs or emergency personnel yet. ; It was nice to see the two make guests concerned and trying to help.

The big question now is where the accident or fault lies - driver of the backing monorail, or control room staff failure or absence at the time. ; One can only guess that the safety system was overridden manually, otherwise it would have to have suffered full failure. ; It seems that the backing monorail was intending to back onto the spur line over to the MK track, pulling into the empty berth in the station on the next line over so it could proceed to the barn. ; Possibly, the safety system needs to be overridden in this scenario to allow the monorail to get within 300 yards to back onto the spur line, so it might be standard procedure. ; If the backing monorail thought it was on the spur, but instead was still on the Epcot track, that would explain how it could have backed into the other train. ; So was the switch not engaged to change tracks? ; The most unfortunate side of the whole thing is that the purple driver who was killed appears by all accounts to have had no fault or blame in the accident...just wrong place wrong time. ; Pink driver may also have been faultless, if they were following procedure to override the safety system to allow backing onto the spur after having been told to proceed under the assumption the switch was engaged.

I'm guessing it will come down to switch failure or control room error in not engaging the switch. ; In the end, still an accident...and the first fatality in a nearly 40-year history of transporting hundreds of millions of people. ; So sad for the young man's family - especially given his apparent love of Disney and enthusiasm for his job.
 
According to the news last night the NTSB (National Transportation and Safety Board) has claimed jurisdiction over the investigation. ; From what I read on CNN, they are claiming that this is the first time they have taken over an investigation of a private transportation system on private property but considering the number of people who use it, they must investigate and Disney is complying (I'd guess not so willingly).

At least with the NTSB involved, I feel more confident that any findings will be released to the public just like they do with airplane crashes, train accidents, and other transportation failures
 
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