Monorail Crash Kills Driver Stuns Passengers At Disney World

[disney-fan-reborn]

So sad that this happened. It's always a tragedy when someone dies at a happy place. Our prayers go out to his family. May they find peace in the fact that he died doing something he loved.

While there may be some people who might feel the need to seer clear of the Monorail system because "it's not safe", I for one will NOT avoid riding a transit system that has not had a fatal accident in its 38-year history. Let's all show our support for the lost CM and for the Monorail system by coming out in large numbers and riding it over and over again!

[Goover]

If I were to die tomorrow, I'd want to die at a Disney Park, not in a car crash on the way home.

Maybe this was just meant to be.

RIP and I hope the family mentally copes with the loss in the easiest way possible.

While it is sad that he had to die, it is never wrong to be thankful that the event wasn't worse, because it always can be.

[Maverick]

Originally Posted by Goover

If I were to die tomorrow, I'd want to die at a Disney Park, not in a car crash on the way home.

Maybe this was just meant to be.

RIP and I hope the family mentally copes with the loss in the easiest way possible.

While it is sad that he had to die, it is never wrong to be thankful that the event wasn't worse, because it always can be.

Dude you need to edit that.

[boomerthemoose]

Originally Posted by PleaseRemainSeated

Well, since I expressed the sentiment you're talking about just a few posts above you, I want to specifically say, regardless of whether your post was directed at me or not, that I absolutely don't think that it's 'okay', or 'better' or in any way less significant or tragic if a cast member gets hurt as opposed to a guest - my intention was to express relief (such as it is) only that the accident wasn't worse than it was; with machinery that big, and that many people, it could have been. I had the assumption that the pilots are the only CMs actually on the monorail train, so any other fatalities would have to have been guests.

I'm really sorry for your loss, and for statements like mine that come off as unfeeling - accidents like this shouldn't happen to anyone.

Like I said, I wasn't pointing any fingers - It's more an impression that I get when the media covers these things. Hakuna matata.

[Ortizmo2000]

Originally Posted by Dante101

The Disney monorails have a fantastic safety record, which is really remarkable considering they are mostly run by college-aged kids. No offense meant by that -- I used to drive the monorails, myself.

First fatality in, what, 39 years of operation? I don't think even the common skateboard has that good a track record!

[DisneyHorace]

I'm a long-time lurker here and I just wanted to agree with the poster above.
It's the first time theres been a monorail accident! This shouldn't scare people away from taking them. They're the coolest way to get to the Parks.
But seriously, this is sad to hear.

[FredSimmons]

I thought I was being paranoid when I occasionally felt a little anxious aboard the monorail. The ugly thought had occurred to me that if something went wrong, our train could go plowing into a parked train ahead (or vice versa), but I told myself that they had to have automatic systems in place to prevent that kind of thing...

Looks like I wasn't quite as paranoid as I had thought.

[BassBone]

Originally Posted by FredSimmons

I thought I was being paranoid when I occasionally felt a little anxious aboard the monorail. The ugly thought had occurred to me that if something went wrong, our train could go plowing into a parked train ahead (or vice versa), but I told myself that they had to have automatic systems in place to prevent that kind of thing...

Looks like I wasn't quite as paranoid as I had thought.

This was the first fatality in the entire time the monorails have been operating. Furthermore, there are automatic systems in place to protect you. In normal operation this wouldn't happen, only when one train is being put away.

[Circarama]

My deepest sympathy and prayers to the family, friends, and co-workers of the young man who lost his life today.

Also, many thanks to all the Monorail Pilots (both past and present) who have contributed to this discussion AND who have helped maintain such an admirable safety record over the last 38 years. Thank you for your dedication to guest safety.

[I Heart Disneyland]

May God bless the family and friends of this lost cast member. What a tragedy. I heard about it early this morning and it just breaks my heart.

I too have appreciated the information provided by CMs at the parks.

[LittleImagineer]

Wow. That is really sad. My prayers go out to everyone involved and especially the cast member's family.
This will probably also cost Disney a lot of money and monorail traffic will probably be a bit bad for a while.

[sir clinksalot]

Originally Posted by FredSimmons

I thought I was being paranoid when I occasionally felt a little anxious aboard the monorail. The ugly thought had occurred to me that if something went wrong, our train could go plowing into a parked train ahead (or vice versa), but I told myself that they had to have automatic systems in place to prevent that kind of thing...

Looks like I wasn't quite as paranoid as I had thought.

To quote goatdan from the other thread on the same subject:

Originally Posted by goatdan

And to anyone worried about the safety of the system, I wrote this on a different board but it is worth re-posting here:

Accidents on any amusement rides get TONS of attention because of how rare they are. I heard today that on an average day, the monorail system moves 150,000 riders. That's over 54 million riders per year. EPCOT Center opened 27 years ago, so even at a conservative estimate, it has had over 1 billion riders since then.

According to another site (earlier post) that had a timeline of monorail issues, there have been 12 people hospitalized due to something happening on a monorail trip, and now one person killed. That means (if I calculated correctly) that you have a one in one billion chance of having a fatality, and a one in 83,333,333 chance of being hospitalized from your ride on the monorail.

With a quick glance at some airline statistics at another site, there have been approximately 143,500,000 flights from 1970-2005, of which there were 59 fatal accidents. That means every 2,432,203 flights end tragically.

It also means that monorails are approximately 411 times safer to ride than airplanes.

Amusement rides and attractions are *incredibly* safe, and I'm sure that Disney will find a way to make the monorail system even safer now that this has occurred.

[MickeysImagination]

Originally Posted by NormalVisual

Hi guys,

MAPO Description from prior post:

The system at Disney is called the MAPO system, or more precisely the Moving Blocklight System (MBS). It consists of a number of transmitters along the beam every 7-10 pylons or so that place RF signals of three different frequencies onto the positive buss bar (power rail), and a corresponding receiver in each train. The trains are wired with a capacitor that shorts the MAPO signals to ground, preventing any signals generated ahead of the train from getting past it. The transmitters are arranged sequentially around the beam- if any given transmitter is putting out frequency #1, then the next one will be emitting frequency #2, and the next one after that will have frequency #3. The one after that will be transmitting frequency #1 again, and the cycle continues all the way around the beam. The upshot of this is that in normal operation, the following distance should be such that there will be three or more transmitters between a given train and the train ahead of him, thus the following train will "see" all three frequencies, and the driver will have a green MBS light on his console. As he begins to get close to the leading train, there will only be two transmitters separating the trains, and the leading train will be shorting out the third MAPO frequency being generated by the next transmitter ahead of it. The following train will then see only two frequencies, and the yellow MBS light illuminates on the driver's console. This signals the driver that he needs to stop at the next designated holdpoint until his MBS indicator turns green again (i.e., the leading train has gone far enough away that there are now again three or more transmitters between the two trains). If the driver ignores the yellow MBS light and continues on, then the following train will only have one transmitter between it and the leading train. This triggers an emergency stop on the following train, with a big ol' blinking red light (a "red MAPO") to let the driver know he screwed up, and a corresponding entry is made in the train's daily event log. It's a reasonably fail-safe system, meaning that if there are problems with the system itself, it will result in a train being stopped instead of being allowed to continue into a dangerous situation. It's not rocket science, and is similar to moving blocklight systems used on subways and other similar systems. Being so simple, the system is pretty reliable, although it rarely can get a bit flaky during thunderstorms, resulting in the occasional yellow MBS light even though there may be a mile or more between trains.

However, there are a number of situations where the MAPO system needs to be turned off, and for that, there's a "MAPO override" button on the console, which allows the driver to do just that. When MAPO override is active, the train is limited to 15 mph, and the driver has to continue to hold the button down to keep the system overridden. Some examples of when the system needs to be overridden are when trains are on any of the spurlines (since they have no MAPO transmitters), or when trains are being switched between beams.

My apologies if this question was previously answered. If so a link to the answer would be appreciated, as these threads are becoming to voluminous to scan.

This is strictly a MAPO question and what occurs during an E-Stop with only one block between trains. Up this point we now know that if there are only 2 blocks open between trains, then the driver is told to stop and hold at the next hold point. It has also been described that if only 1 block exists between trains, then the train following is put into an E-Stop condition. It is this E-Stop condition that interests me. During an E-stop with only 1 block separation has power to the offending block been cut? Is it possible for the driver of the offending train to jog his train in reverse? What is required to clear the E-Stop condition? Driver intervention only? Is Monorail Central required to intervene?

Thanks for the feedback.

-Justin