A monorail train running at Walt Disney World crashed into the back of another train early Sunday, killing the driver of one of the trains according to an amusement park spokesman and a witness interviewed by CNN.
The crash occurred about 2 a.m. at one of the monorail stops at Walt Disney World, said the witness, who requested anonymity.
“Today we mourn the loss of our fellow cast member,” said a statement by Mike Griffin, Disney’s vice president for public affairs. “Our hearts go out to his family and to those who have lost a friend and co-worker.”
The statement said the monorail was shut down, “and we will continue to work closely will law enforcement to determine what happened and the appropriate next steps.”
The witness said one monorail train rammed into the back of a stationary train. A photo of the crash provided by the witness showed the front car of a train badly damaged where it hit another train at a station.
According to the witness, a family of six in one train was freed from a damaged car. The witness said the family was shaken but uninjured.
For more information visit CNN.
Not the first accident involving the Monorail system: Incidents at Disney parks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
That sounds sick. I don't think it was a DUI.
I was quite surprised to hear this news. Normally you expect to hear something about the rides.
MA has seen this happen often from operators Texting while in controlling the train.
^If he was texting while operating the monorail we'll probably find out as they'll be able to check his phone records. But I really hope that's not the case.
Either way there were 2 people not paying attention: the pilot of the pink monorail, and central control, who was supposed to confirm the override.
Does Disney have camera's on the monorail? Maybe in the cockpit? It would surprise me if they didn't...
From what I understand, Monorail Pink was being removed for the night and was awaiting to switch to the spur that would take it to the MK Express beam- the Pilot radioed Central who did likewise to the Monorail Shop to throw the switch, they inform Central both are over- but at least the Epcot switch is not... Central radio's Pink telling them they are clear in reverse to the Magic Kingdom (where they will switch cabs for the final hop over to the Shop)- Pink does not notice he/she is still on the Epcot line and is over-riding the MAPO Anti-Collision system, seeing as a switch always sends erroneous messages... Pink moves down the Epcot line at the max over-ride speed of 15mph not knowing...
Monorail Purple had been cleared to over-ride MAPO to the Concourse (TTC) for the same reason- Pink should be around the U-Turn and far enough away. Purple assumes the red MAPO is simply the switch and continues over-riding MAPO (which would have E-Stopped) into the TTC not knowing Pink is barreling down on him.
Central was unoccupied and the platform CMs didn't notice in time to activate their remote 'kill-switches' that would have zapped any power on the beams. Both monorails hit each other traveling at 15 mph each or 30 mph combined with 50 tons of train behind each- the nose cones are not reinforced and they collapsed on impact.
Not official, but the most likely theory I have picked up on several forums. My thoughts and prayers go to Austin's family, friends and fellow Monorail CMs who have lost one of their own in an example of a 'perfect storm' of human error.