Disney Monorail Crash

[blizz01]

Wow - I didn't even think this was possible.  There's also something just not quite right about keeping up with the propaganda & calling the deceased a "cast member".....

1 Dead In Disney Monorail Crash
No Magic Kingdom Guests Injured, Officials Say

POSTED: Sunday, July 5, 2009
UPDATED: 9:27 am EDT July 5, 2009
[One person is killed when two monorails collide at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.]
One person is killed when two monorails collide at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A Walt Disney World employee was killed when two monorails carrying at least five guests collided at Magic Kingdom, emergency officials said.

EXCLUSIVE: See Larger Image

According to Reedy Creek Emergency Services, the monorails collided at about 2 a.m. Sunday, killing one of the train operators.

The name of the driver has not been released. The operator of the other monorail was not injured.

Eight other people were evaluated after the crash, but no other injuries were reported.

A witness told Local 6 that he heard a loud crashing noise when the monorails collided.

The monorail has been closed, and an investigation into the fatal accident is under way.

Walt Disney World vice president of public affairs Mike Griffin issued a statement offering condolences to the employee's family.

"Today, we mourn the loss of a fellow cast member. Our hearts go out to the family and fellow cast members who lost a coworker and a friend. Safety of our guests and cast members is our top priority. We will work with law enforcement to determine what happened," Griffin said in the statement.

A Disney spokeswoman declined to discuss details of the accident.

[Cliffs_Daughter]

Courtesy of a tourist, via WESH Orlando.

I'm with you there - I never thought this would ever happen in the 'happiest place on earth'.
Was this the only monorail accident WDW's had? They've run 37 years now.

[Ernest Street]

I worked for the Mouse for years and never remember the Monorails running so late...not even on holidays. Tourists?..at 2am?

[Charles Hunter]

Was there some sort of special event after the 4th of July fireworks?

Edit to add:  apparently not, Magic Kingdom had a parade at 10, and Epcot's fireworks were also at 10pm.

The trains were transporting guests leaving Epcot. Six park guests were on the train during the crash, and were evaluated by paramedics at the scene according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office.



The wreck is the first fatal accident in the Walt Disney World monorail system's almost 38-year history, according to CFNews13.com. However, at Disneyland in California, there has been at least one death on the monorail system, according to park historians.

From the Orlando Sentinal, links to pics
        * WESH.com photos of the scene: http://www.wesh.com/slideshow/news/19956082/detail.html
        * ClickOrlando.com video, shot by a guest: http://www.clickorlando.com/video/19956043/index.html

In a video of Saturday's incident posted on ClickOrlando.com, several guests gathered on the platform as riders exited the monorail after the crash.

A man who appears to be a Walt Disney World employee told bystanders there were guests and a driver still in the monorail cars.

"Is there somebody in here?" one guest said, referring to the smashed front of one Monorail.

"Yes. The driver," the apparent employee said.

The video shows park guests attempting to get to the trapped driver, banging on the windows of monorail. When the apparent employee realized the incident was being taped, he forced the cameraman to stop filming

[heights unknown]

Weird.  Very weird.  At the magic Kingdom?  There couldn't have been that much happening, even on the 4th of July, for the monorail to be running late and then to collide with another monorail.  Someone was probably under the influence of drugs or alcohol and caused this crash I'll bet.

Heights Unknown

[77danj7]

Magic Kingdom was open until 1 AM and they run the monorails for 2 hours after closing typically...

I am surprised the monorails do not have a sensor to "auto-stop" if they are approaching another monorail to quickly....I would think some sort of contraption will be installed now.

[Ocklawaha]

Greetings from BFE "St Johns County".

The monorails involved are state-of-the-art, Mark VI trains by Bombardier, SAME builder as our SKYWAY, which uses their UMIII model.

As suggested this could be operator error, but usually these type of wrecks are due to signaling (IE: track sensors, lights, automatic controls, etc. Disney has the number one Monorail system in the world and death by monorail is almost unheard of. The rare case of death is almost always someone or something (like a German pick up truck) being where they were NOT supposed to be. In such cases the monorail wins, the tresspasser loses. I believe it has happened on the Skyway at least once, a case of human tresspass, third rail, fried to a crackly crunch!

The modern trains that have been in use since 1989 are each 203' 6" long (consisting of six cars) and can carry 364 passengers. The trains are driven by eight 113 HP motors which are powered by a 600-volt electrical system running through a busbar mounted on each side of the concrete beam.  Each train also has seven inverters on board that convert the 600 VDC to 230 VAC for use by the air conditioners and air compressor, and additionally has a battery-backed 35 VDC low-voltage supply that provides power for the train's electronics. The trains are also equipped with a towing knuckle at each end to allow it to be pushed or pulled by a special diesel-powered tractor if need be. Maximum speed during normal operations is 40 mph, with several speed zones throughout the system with limits ranging from 15 to 40 mph. These speed limits are strictly enforced by the train's computer and cannot be overridden without the operator engaging a special lockout. Attempting to drive the train too quickly in a given speed zone will result in an "overspeed stop", often subjecting the driver to good-natured ridicule by his co-workers. Train spacing is maintained by the Moving Blocklight System (MBS), also known as the MAPO (for "Mary Poppins") system, which establishes a number of "holdpoints" throughout the system. At any given time, there must be at least two holdpoints between a given train and the train ahead of it. When the train detects that there are fewer than two holdpoints between itself and the preceding train, the emergency brakes are immediately applied and cannot be released until sufficient spacing becomes available or the operator explicitly overrides the system. Failure to maintain adequate spacing is known as an "overrun", and is treated as an extremely serious offense.

The signaling system was first installed at Disneyland and was similar to all signaling of the 1950-60's era, the MAPO, is just a newer version of the same old thing. This train had to blow through two hold points in order to stack it up like this. Further, the impact appears to be close to the 40 MPH maximum speed, our own Skyway can easily make 55 MPH. Also this will be interesting to see if anticlimbers prevented a telescoping wreck.

The 600 volt DC state-of-the-art electric motors are in fact streetcar circa 1925... Go Figure.

OCKLAWAHA

[Ocklawaha]

OH PLEASE! "Driver's" have steering wheels, OR they operate trains in other countries. In the United States an "Engine Driver" is properly called ENGINEER. Why? Because in the steam and early diesel days they were required to know the mechanics of their locomotive (and how to fix it in a jam). Thus they were trained mechanical engineers.

There are a host of other errors out there spawned by an ignorant press and media:

Tanker train - Uh, it's a TANK train, with tank cars, "Tankers" are ships.

Cargo carriers - Do you mean freight train? or box car?

Flatbed cars - Flat cars, flatbeds are 18 wheelers.

Caboose on Amtrak - Cabooses are freight train equipment and with few exceptions (one of which works the Talleyrand - Yulee line) they are all retired. Nobody rides an Amtrak caboose.

Cockpit of the Train - Cockpit's are in airplanes, locomotives have cabs.

Streetcar Engineer - NOT. Properly called Motorman or Operators.

Conductor running the train - Engineers run trains, Conductors are in charge of the train.

Disney tried to "reorder the world" when he put the monorail operators in Star-Trek uniforms and placed a patch on them that reads "PILOT". Sorry, 600 volts DC says they are "Operators."

OCKLAWAHA

[stjr]

My guess, at 2 AM, is the engineer/driver  had fatigue/fell asleep at the controls.  This was a 21 year old Stetson college kid probably working a summer job.  Doesn't seem it would be the type of person to put in such a critical position.  Until now, I always thought these monorails where pretty much on autopilot.  Let's see what the investigators turn up.

Last employee I recall dying on the job at Disney in Orlando was when someone died maintaining the overhead tram/cable lift.  After that, they removed it.  I always thought that ride was a Disney World icon but it seems over time, little is guaranteed to last forever.  How many rides/attractions today where there when they open 37 years ago?

[Cliffs_Daughter]

There seems to be some speculation from other monorail drivers (past and present) that what happened was pink backed into purple, not the other way around.

http://www.mouseplanet.com/8896/WDW_Update_Special_Report_Walt_Disney_World_Monorails_crash_killing_one

If the pilot of Monorail Pink was backing up, thinking that the monorail was heading for an empty Magic Kingdom Express station, but the switch had not moved to transfer it, Monorail Pink would have backed up back into the Epcot station that was already occupied by Monorail Purple. Since the collision system is reportedly disabled during track switching, there would have been no automated warnings. If this scenario is indeed what happened, why Monorail Pink backed up before the switch moved to the Magic Kingdom Express loop is unknown. - MousePlanet.com

[Cliffs_Daughter]

  I always thought that ride was a Disney World icon but it seems over time, little is guaranteed to last forever.  How many rides/attractions today where there when they open 37 years ago?

You might want to check out Yesterland.com for some answers to that question. They have all the gone-but-not-forgotten rides, shows, etc.