Wow! I don't believe it what happening the monorail is being killed last night. So my condolences with his entire fmaily. Because he was too young to dies. So I coudn't believe it what happened at Walt Disney World. This is my last time since I am no longer go to Disney World in MCO from 14 years ago. Because we didn't like it there for quite of the time. So sorry for loss with his family. Nobody did taking his own responsibilities life work for monorail at Disney property.
__________________
I will try to concentrate with English. Thanks!
2009 Travel: DL 18836 MQMs
When I heard this story yesterday it was quite alarming for me as a friend of mine is a monorail pilot and was working during the time of the crash. She's okay physically and wasn't involved in the crash, but emotionally she's upset and mourning the death of a co-worker.
The trains involved in the collision have been cleared off and the rest of the trains are up and running normally. It's not clear what happened to cause the crash. Several reports that I've heard is that one train was backing into the station to switch beams so it could go to the shop for the night, but didn't know about the train already in the station (or the train moved forward into the station as the other one was backing up). In any case, it's a sad event and my thoughts and prayers go out to the families affected by this tragedy.
It is fortunate that the crash happened at 2am- there was only one family in the train and no one other then the driver up in the front cab. If it had happened in the middle of the day, this accident could have resulted in many more casualties.
When I heard this story yesterday it was quite alarming for me as a friend of mine is a monorail pilot and was working during the time of the crash. She's okay physically and wasn't involved in the crash, but emotionally she's upset and mourning the death of a co-worker.
The trains involved in the collision have been cleared off and the rest of the trains are up and running normally. It's not clear what happened to cause the crash. Several reports that I've heard is that one train was backing into the station to switch beams so it could go to the shop for the night, but didn't know about the train already in the station (or the train moved forward into the station as the other one was backing up). In any case, it's a sad event and my thoughts and prayers go out to the families affected by this tragedy.
Wow! What a long story of your co-worker's death. So sorry for your loss of your co-worker died from few night ago. So my condolences with his family. So I can't believe it what happened to him. HE need to have more extra carefully what he is doing on the monorail. I think they are any under his circumstance for cause of the death. He will have his liability for any responsibilities for cause damaged the monorail.
__________________
I will try to concentrate with English. Thanks!
2009 Travel: DL 18836 MQMs
People in the public transport circles don't call it monofail for nothing! .
A very unfortunate event. Sounds like something similar to what happened in DC. AFAIK those trains have mostly automatic controls and the train drivers are there mostly to load/unload pax and report to central control their location.
Programs: NW-PLAT, US-GOLD, AA, UA, DL, CO HILTON-GOLD, SPG-GOLD, HERTZ-GOLD/PRES. CIRCLE
Posts: 593
Quote:
Originally Posted by ScottC
I'm curious how there was a family on the train at 2am - do they normally run them this late?
It was the night of the 4th. The parks were jammed. I was actually at the Polynesian watching the fireworks earlier that night.
I believe the Magic Kingdom was open until 1AM with Extra Magic Hours to follow. The accident was on the rail to Epcot. That particular line is not that busy that time of night as Epcot closed at either 9 or maybe even 10 since it was the 4th. The only people using that line that late would be going to or from the Epcot parking lot. If it had been on the express or resort lines, there most likely would have been more people on board... even at that hour.
I also have a friend who is a monorail pilot. He is ok as well.. My condolences to the family.
They were switching lines and multiple failures seem to have occured.
Monorail Pink was switching lines and should have been reversing onto an empty line - instead it reversed into Purple. The switch had not been initiated/made, apparently Pink's pilot was ignorant to this and thought the switch had been made and had called/been notified to proceed.
Theorhetically, Pink's Pilot should have realized he was on the wrong track, but perhaps he hadn't cleared any visual markers as he was at the forward cockpit (technically the rear since the train was going backwards). Also, there is speculation that Purple was parked at the wrong point to await a line change and should have been further back. On top of that, it occurred in the immediate vicinity of a major station, and thus the station crew should have been aware of the impending crash and cut power to the line.
Pink went backwards on the wrong line when the switch wasn't properly initiated, hit Purple killing its pilot and "fusing" the two vehicle, Pink reversed-forward into the station after the jolt dragging Purple, panic on the platform ensued and the family in the car behind the cockpit in Purple were evacuated - Pink had no passengers.
I've also heard reports that Pink was told the station was clear by monorail traffic control, when in fact Purple was in the station or about to come in. Definitely a case of multiple points of failure. But it does sound like it was mostly human error here to blame- many safety features were disabled so Pink could back up.
Also, OSHA cleared the monorail yesterday and the trains are back up and running again, indicating that OSHA and Disney must not think there's a major flaw with the computer systems. It's interesting that the NTSB has been brought in for this investigation- the board has never examined a monorail accident before. It'll be interesting to see what conclusions the various organizations reach in their reports.
Hmm...sounds like everyone was running on manual control. What kind of a signalling system does the monorail have? Is there a track map?
Indicator lights and radio confirmations, it used to all be visual based from the pilots and the towers. When they switched to the newer system (many many years ago) the tower positions really became a redundancy and as is common the tower was not at their control panel as happened in this situation - something Disney is likely to take a major hit for from the NTSB.
Essentially they have a system that isn't perfect and on top of that they've been slacking in following their own procedures.
Purple or the tower should have said "Pink Stop" when they noticed it was on the wrong track. Pink should have noticed it was on the wrong track. Tower should have cut power to the track. Purple should have tried to move away.
Some more information has come out about this accident today. First off, Disney has suspended 3 employees without pay. One is a monorail pilot, one is a monorail shop cast member, and the third was the on-duty monorail manager. The shocking part is that the on-duty manager was apparently at either a Perkin's or Denny's off-property and was talking to the monorail shop via two-way radio.
Also, the investigation has revealed that the monorail pilot who was killed did try to reverse to avoid the other train that was backing up to him. Finally, there have been some reports that the switch that was suppose to move a train from the Epcot beam to the Magic Kingdom beam was working correctly, so it looks like somebody somewhere didn't flip the switch. All around, a terrible accident that was caused by several human errors.
