News Monorails Collide at WDW - One Killed

KevinYee · 07-05-2009, 05:40 AM

NOTE: THIS POST IS EDITED WITH NEWER INFORMATION; THE ORIGINAL POST FROM 7/5/09 FOLLOWS AT THE END. Thanks immensely to the insiders who have posted throughout the thread, allowing for a more complete picture of the accident (see in particular post #301).

Sequence of Events:

1. Monorail Pink leaves the TTC station on the EPCOT line. It intends to go a little distance on the line, then back up (going in reverse) onto a spur line and reconnect to the Express Line.

2. Monorail Purple, also on the EPCOT Line, is told to hold just outside (south) of the TTC. Purple is piloted by Austin Wuennenberg.

3. Monorail Pink (piloted by Alan Rubino) radios that it is ready for the switch.

4. Monorail Shop (the backstage facility that controls the switches) allegedly tells Monorail Central (the guy in charge out on the TTC platform) that the switch has been made. This turns out to not be correct. The switch hasn't been moved.

5. Monorail Pink allegedly gets the all-clear from Central, and starts to back up, thinking it's on the spur line. In reality, it's on the same line as before, and now heading toward Monorail Purple. Meanwhile, Monorail Purple is cleared by Central, so it proceeds towards the platform.

6. The anti-collision devices are turned off (both Pink and Purple are in MAPO-Override mode, which is required for the switch to occur), so Pink is not prevented from colliding with Purple just outside (south) the station. The NTSB initial report indicates that Purple stopped and tried to reverse course just prior to the collision, implying Wuenneberg (Purple) saw Rubino (Pink) coming. The driver of Monorail Purple, 21-year old Austin Wuennenberg, dies upon impact.

7. The two conjoined monorails are on an upward slope of track, and the collision kills power, so the trains coast back to the station and stop. At this point, the clickorlando.com video was taken, and the guests from Purple were evacuated.

Human Errors and Mistakes

a). The software and hardware appear to have functioned as designed, with no failures. The incident appears to be due to human error alone.

b). The Pink driver should have seen that he was on the wrong track. Various speculations to account for this lapse include distraction (cell phone?), fatigue, poor nighttime visibility, or window fogging (quite common here in Florida). On 7/9/09, this pilot was placed on paid leave by Disney (Disney says publicly that all suspensions are not punitive, but part of the investigation). In his statement on 7/10, Rubino says he was just doing what he was told by radio, something monorail pilots do multiple times every day.

c). The Purple driver appears to have attempted to back up at the last second, and so far appears to have done nothing wrong (in fact, he was paying attention). Why he did not release the override button and cause the system to force Pink to a stop automatically is not clear (perhaps in the heat of the moment, it did not occur to him).

d). The CMs on the platform have a killpack to kill beam power, and they should have used it when (if?) they saw Pink come back on the wrong track.

e). Monorail Shop people allegedly said the switch was moved when it was not. On 7/9/09, one person from Shop was suspended by Disney.

f). The platform Central Command coordinator is supposed to relay to Pink the all-clear. The scheduled person for this job allegedly went home sick.

g). The manager in charge (like the "Central" coordinator, but salaried) was apparently filling the duties of Monorail Central during the time of the incident, and rumored to be off-site at a Denny's restaurant when the accident occurred (pulling the strings by radio). It should be noted that the off-site rumor is one of the least substantiated reports so far, and must be taken with a grain of salt. A manager was suspended on 7/9/09.

Corrective Action

a). Law enforcement and NTSB cleared the monorail for operation within a few days after testing rigorously for hardware malfunction. New sensors were installed on the switches.

b). Disney standard operating procedure was altered post-accident to require pilots to go through the switch "facing forward" (meaning they would have to switch to the back end of the train for leaving the station, and do the "backing up" part while going in the normal direction of the EPCOT line.) This takes longer and causes some guest inconvenience, but used to be standard procedure in the past, and is now being re-instituted.

There are still some points being debated, and this post will be updated as more information is obtained.

==========ORIGINAL POST FROM 7/5/09=================

"The monorails involved were the pink and purple trains, according to Local 6 in Orlando; pink was moving and hit purple, which was stationary."

It is absolutely not supposed to happen that monorails can come close to each other. The standard procedure is to test a new monorail joining the line by making it try to approach too closely to the one in front of it under controlled test conditions (it delays the monorails in front of and behind the new one undergoing tests). I've been on several such delayed monorails. If you get too close, the approaching monorail should get feedback from the ahead-one courtesy of a sensor, which tells the approaching monorail to kill the throttle (a so-called dead stick). The proximity sensors, if working right, are supposed to be 100% effective and completely prevent one car from hitting another.

These are apparently called the MAPO tests (I'm guessing due to the involvement in the early years by the Imagineering arm of MAPO, which manufactures the stuff WDI dreams up and was named for the MAry POppins movie).

So did they skip MAPO this time? Was it because it was so busy? The fourth of july is the busiest day of the year at WDW.

rumor time: I have seen Monorail Purple have problems first-hand in two of the last two times I went to the MK. One time resulted in kicking us all out of the MK station to use the boat while they towed purple. The other time required a restart of the electrical systems while we were at the TTC (also on the MK line). We actually made a verbal joke about purple becoming dangerous. Ouch.

Even though pink crashed (and the driver of pink is presumably the one who died), could it be because of a failed sensor on Purple? Did purple have an electrical outage that allowed Pink to not realize Purple was ahead?

Also: let's not forget visibility. The monorails have a headlight, of sorts, for running at nighttime, but it only illuminates a few yards ahead. If the sky is dark, you really wouldn't see hundreds of yards down the track.

Looking at the examiner.com photos of the crash, they seem to have a pic of the monorails smashed together in the TTC parking lot, and another photo of the same thing inside the station. Did the crash happen outside (just before) the TTC station coming from Epcot, while still in the parking lot, and they moved Purple (by tow? by its own power?) into the station after the crash to get people off? Or did it happen in the station first? How can both pictures be true?

EDIT: one later post in this thread claims that one train backed into the other, apparently oblivious to the presence of the stationary train in the station. This can only happen by holding down the MAPO override button, and requires specific managerial or CENTRAL approval. That theory holds the advantage that it explains why the drivers didn't see each other - one was backing into the other!

reillysix · 07-05-2009, 05:40 AM

Just heard about this. Very surprising.

Article

ADMIN NOTE: At 2 a.m. this morning, two monorails collided at Disney World, killing a driver. Discussion and more information below.

mikeland · 07-05-2009, 06:51 AM

I'm so sorry a cast member was killed by this. I wonder how fast he was going.

The restart also happened when I was there last month. I don't recall exactly what color the monorail was, thought.

Maybe it's time for Disney to upgrade and expand their monorail fleet at this time.

elly · 07-05-2009, 06:52 AM

ugh, sad news!

Lectrorail · 07-05-2009, 06:56 AM

"Even though pink crashed (and the driver of pink is presumably the one who died), could it be because of a failed sensor on Purple? Did purple have an electrical outage that allowed Pink to not realize Purple was ahead?"

Hmmm. Shouldn't Pink also have sensors that detect other monorails (or anything else) is in its path? Photo looks like it was a pretty good impact. If Pink was operating in manual mode, looks like a brake malfunction to me....quite similar to the recent Red line METRO accident in VA.

Disneyland RR Guy · 07-05-2009, 07:04 AM

http://image.examiner.com/images/blo...ono%284%29.jpg

http://image.examiner.com/images/blo...mage/mono2.jpg

Very sad!

source

http://www.examiner.com/x-2200-Orlando-Theme-Parks-Examiner~y2009m7d5-Breaking-new-Two-monorails-crash-at-Disney-World-on-Epcot-line-one-Cast-Member-dead

KevinYee · 07-05-2009, 07:05 AM

Pure speculation, but I would guess that Pink's systems wouldn't know about Purple if Purple had a power outage.

Disneyland RR Guy · 07-05-2009, 07:14 AM

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/US...disney.cnn.jpg

source CNN

Stitchy · 07-05-2009, 07:16 AM

oh my goodness! Oh, that's horrible to hear.

KevinYee · 07-05-2009, 07:17 AM

Now that shot is *really* interesting. Why is the underside of the track twisted? Is this the spot of impact? Was it damage before the crash (it caused the crash) or was it from after?

sigh, I might have to go to WDW this weekend after all.

Stitchy · 07-05-2009, 07:18 AM

Is this the first time a monorail has crashed at WDW?

Disneyland RR Guy · 07-05-2009, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinYee

Now that shot is *really* interesting. Why is the underside of the track twisted? Is this the spot of impact? Was it damage before the crash (it caused the crash) or was it from after?

sigh, I might have to go to WDW this weekend after all.

From what I can look at is the impact of the trains from the underside no track damage

KevinYee · 07-05-2009, 07:21 AM

I think you may be right. I need to go get my archive photos of the monorail to see what's track and what's train!

Disneyland RR Guy · 07-05-2009, 07:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stitchy

Is this the first time a monorail has crashed at WDW?

No

On August 30, 1991, a monorail train collided with a diesel maintenance work tractor near the Contemporary Resort as the tractor drove closely in front of the train to film it for a commercial. Two cast members were treated at a hospital for injuries.

Young at Heart · 07-05-2009, 07:22 AM

I just woke up on the West coast and saw the terrible news. My deepest sympathies to the CM's family and the WDW cast. This will be a terrible shock.

Question; don't the WDW monorails have block lights, like the railroad does? DLR's monorails do, to warn about a monorail train on the block ahead.

07-05-2009, 05:40 AM	#1
KevinYee Moderator MiceAge Columnist Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 1,412	Re: Monorails Collide at WDW - One Killed NOTE: THIS POST IS EDITED WITH NEWER INFORMATION; THE ORIGINAL POST FROM 7/5/09 FOLLOWS AT THE END. Thanks immensely to the insiders who have posted throughout the thread, allowing for a more complete picture of the accident (see in particular post #301). Sequence of Events: 1. Monorail Pink leaves the TTC station on the EPCOT line. It intends to go a little distance on the line, then back up (going in reverse) onto a spur line and reconnect to the Express Line. 2. Monorail Purple, also on the EPCOT Line, is told to hold just outside (south) of the TTC. Purple is piloted by Austin Wuennenberg. 3. Monorail Pink (piloted by Alan Rubino) radios that it is ready for the switch. 4. Monorail Shop (the backstage facility that controls the switches) allegedly tells Monorail Central (the guy in charge out on the TTC platform) that the switch has been made. This turns out to not be correct. The switch hasn't been moved. 5. Monorail Pink allegedly gets the all-clear from Central, and starts to back up, thinking it's on the spur line. In reality, it's on the same line as before, and now heading toward Monorail Purple. Meanwhile, Monorail Purple is cleared by Central, so it proceeds towards the platform. 6. The anti-collision devices are turned off (both Pink and Purple are in MAPO-Override mode, which is required for the switch to occur), so Pink is not prevented from colliding with Purple just outside (south) the station. The NTSB initial report indicates that Purple stopped and tried to reverse course just prior to the collision, implying Wuenneberg (Purple) saw Rubino (Pink) coming. The driver of Monorail Purple, 21-year old Austin Wuennenberg, dies upon impact. 7. The two conjoined monorails are on an upward slope of track, and the collision kills power, so the trains coast back to the station and stop. At this point, the clickorlando.com video was taken, and the guests from Purple were evacuated. Human Errors and Mistakes a). The software and hardware appear to have functioned as designed, with no failures. The incident appears to be due to human error alone. b). The Pink driver should have seen that he was on the wrong track. Various speculations to account for this lapse include distraction (cell phone?), fatigue, poor nighttime visibility, or window fogging (quite common here in Florida). On 7/9/09, this pilot was placed on paid leave by Disney (Disney says publicly that all suspensions are not punitive, but part of the investigation). In his statement on 7/10, Rubino says he was just doing what he was told by radio, something monorail pilots do multiple times every day. c). The Purple driver appears to have attempted to back up at the last second, and so far appears to have done nothing wrong (in fact, he was paying attention). Why he did not release the override button and cause the system to force Pink to a stop automatically is not clear (perhaps in the heat of the moment, it did not occur to him). d). The CMs on the platform have a killpack to kill beam power, and they should have used it when (if?) they saw Pink come back on the wrong track. e). Monorail Shop people allegedly said the switch was moved when it was not. On 7/9/09, one person from Shop was suspended by Disney. f). The platform Central Command coordinator is supposed to relay to Pink the all-clear. The scheduled person for this job allegedly went home sick. g). The manager in charge (like the "Central" coordinator, but salaried) was apparently filling the duties of Monorail Central during the time of the incident, and rumored to be off-site at a Denny's restaurant when the accident occurred (pulling the strings by radio). It should be noted that the off-site rumor is one of the least substantiated reports so far, and must be taken with a grain of salt. A manager was suspended on 7/9/09. Corrective Action a). Law enforcement and NTSB cleared the monorail for operation within a few days after testing rigorously for hardware malfunction. New sensors were installed on the switches. b). Disney standard operating procedure was altered post-accident to require pilots to go through the switch "facing forward" (meaning they would have to switch to the back end of the train for leaving the station, and do the "backing up" part while going in the normal direction of the EPCOT line.) This takes longer and causes some guest inconvenience, but used to be standard procedure in the past, and is now being re-instituted. There are still some points being debated, and this post will be updated as more information is obtained. ==========ORIGINAL POST FROM 7/5/09================= "The monorails involved were the pink and purple trains, according to Local 6 in Orlando; pink was moving and hit purple, which was stationary." It is absolutely not supposed to happen that monorails can come close to each other. The standard procedure is to test a new monorail joining the line by making it try to approach too closely to the one in front of it under controlled test conditions (it delays the monorails in front of and behind the new one undergoing tests). I've been on several such delayed monorails. If you get too close, the approaching monorail should get feedback from the ahead-one courtesy of a sensor, which tells the approaching monorail to kill the throttle (a so-called dead stick). The proximity sensors, if working right, are supposed to be 100% effective and completely prevent one car from hitting another. These are apparently called the MAPO tests (I'm guessing due to the involvement in the early years by the Imagineering arm of MAPO, which manufactures the stuff WDI dreams up and was named for the MAry POppins movie). So did they skip MAPO this time? Was it because it was so busy? The fourth of july is the busiest day of the year at WDW. rumor time: I have seen Monorail Purple have problems first-hand in two of the last two times I went to the MK. One time resulted in kicking us all out of the MK station to use the boat while they towed purple. The other time required a restart of the electrical systems while we were at the TTC (also on the MK line). We actually made a verbal joke about purple becoming dangerous. Ouch. Even though pink crashed (and the driver of pink is presumably the one who died), could it be because of a failed sensor on Purple? Did purple have an electrical outage that allowed Pink to not realize Purple was ahead? Also: let's not forget visibility. The monorails have a headlight, of sorts, for running at nighttime, but it only illuminates a few yards ahead. If the sky is dark, you really wouldn't see hundreds of yards down the track. Looking at the examiner.com photos of the crash, they seem to have a pic of the monorails smashed together in the TTC parking lot, and another photo of the same thing inside the station. Did the crash happen outside (just before) the TTC station coming from Epcot, while still in the parking lot, and they moved Purple (by tow? by its own power?) into the station after the crash to get people off? Or did it happen in the station first? How can both pictures be true? EDIT: one later post in this thread claims that one train backed into the other, apparently oblivious to the presence of the stationary train in the station. This can only happen by holding down the MAPO override button, and requires specific managerial or CENTRAL approval. That theory holds the advantage that it explains why the drivers didn't see each other - one was backing into the other! __________________ Kevin Yee MiceAge Columnist I am the author of several Disney books: Mouse Trap Tokyo Disney Made Easy The Walt Disney World Menu Book 101 Things You Never Knew About Walt Disney World 101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland Magic Quizdom (The Disneyland Trivia Book) My other Disney blog (also available via RSS) “The press [should be] a watchdog. Not an attack dog. Not a lapdog. A watchdog. Now, a watchdog can't be right all the time. He doesn't bark only when he sees or smells something that's dangerous. A good watchdog barks at things that are suspicious.” – Dan Rather Last edited by KevinYee; 07-10-2009 at 09:33 AM. Reason: updated info from insiders, official reports, and newspapers

07-05-2009, 05:40 AM	#2
reillysix New Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 13	Monorails Collide at WDW - One Killed Just heard about this. Very surprising. Article ADMIN NOTE: At 2 a.m. this morning, two monorails collided at Disney World, killing a driver. Discussion and more information below. Last edited by Dustysage; 07-05-2009 at 10:29 AM. Reason: This post was moved from the #1 to the #2 spot due to lack of information for an initial post.

07-05-2009, 06:56 AM	#5
Lectrorail Omnimover Groover Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Washington DC Posts: 66	Re: Monorails Collide at WDW - One Killed "Even though pink crashed (and the driver of pink is presumably the one who died), could it be because of a failed sensor on Purple? Did purple have an electrical outage that allowed Pink to not realize Purple was ahead?" Hmmm. Shouldn't Pink also have sensors that detect other monorails (or anything else) is in its path? Photo looks like it was a pretty good impact. If Pink was operating in manual mode, looks like a brake malfunction to me....quite similar to the recent Red line METRO accident in VA. __________________ People aren't successful because they have never failed.....they are successful because failing hasn't stopped them.

07-05-2009, 07:04 AM	#6
Disneyland RR Guy Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Disneyland Resort Posts: 677	Re: Monorails Collide at WDW - One Killed http://image.examiner.com/images/blo...ono%284%29.jpg http://image.examiner.com/images/blo...mage/mono2.jpg Very sad! source http://www.examiner.com/x-2200-Orlando-Theme-Parks-Examiner~y2009m7d5-Breaking-new-Two-monorails-crash-at-Disney-World-on-Epcot-line-one-Cast-Member-dead __________________ Walt's love of Trains! Last edited by NeverNeverland; 07-05-2009 at 10:11 AM. Reason: hotlinked pictures removed

07-05-2009, 07:05 AM	#7
KevinYee Moderator MiceAge Columnist Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 1,412	Re: Monorails Collide at WDW - One Killed Pure speculation, but I would guess that Pink's systems wouldn't know about Purple if Purple had a power outage. __________________ Kevin Yee MiceAge Columnist I am the author of several Disney books: Mouse Trap Tokyo Disney Made Easy The Walt Disney World Menu Book 101 Things You Never Knew About Walt Disney World 101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland Magic Quizdom (The Disneyland Trivia Book) My other Disney blog (also available via RSS) “The press [should be] a watchdog. Not an attack dog. Not a lapdog. A watchdog. Now, a watchdog can't be right all the time. He doesn't bark only when he sees or smells something that's dangerous. A good watchdog barks at things that are suspicious.” – Dan Rather

07-05-2009, 06:51 AM	#3
mikeland World Traveler Join Date: May 2005 Location: Aventura, FL Posts: 3,732	Re: Monorails Collide at WDW - One Killed I'm so sorry a cast member was killed by this. I wonder how fast he was going. The restart also happened when I was there last month. I don't recall exactly what color the monorail was, thought. Maybe it's time for Disney to upgrade and expand their monorail fleet at this time. __________________

07-05-2009, 07:14 AM	#8
Disneyland RR Guy Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Disneyland Resort Posts: 677	Re: Monorails Collide at WDW - One Killed http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/US...disney.cnn.jpg source CNN __________________ Walt's love of Trains! Last edited by NeverNeverland; 07-05-2009 at 10:11 AM. Reason: hotlinked picture removed

07-05-2009, 07:16 AM	#9
Stitchy Laaaaaaaambert Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Hotel California Posts: 13,551	Re: Monorails Collide at WDW - One Killed oh my goodness! Oh, that's horrible to hear. __________________

07-05-2009, 07:17 AM	#10
KevinYee Moderator MiceAge Columnist Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 1,412	Re: Monorails Collide at WDW - One Killed Now that shot is really interesting. Why is the underside of the track twisted? Is this the spot of impact? Was it damage before the crash (it caused the crash) or was it from after? sigh, I might have to go to WDW this weekend after all. __________________ Kevin Yee MiceAge Columnist I am the author of several Disney books: Mouse Trap Tokyo Disney Made Easy The Walt Disney World Menu Book 101 Things You Never Knew About Walt Disney World 101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland Magic Quizdom (The Disneyland Trivia Book) My other Disney blog (also available via RSS) “The press [should be] a watchdog. Not an attack dog. Not a lapdog. A watchdog. Now, a watchdog can't be right all the time. He doesn't bark only when he sees or smells something that's dangerous. A good watchdog barks at things that are suspicious.” – Dan Rather

07-05-2009, 07:18 AM	#11
Stitchy Laaaaaaaambert Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Hotel California Posts: 13,551	Re: Monorails Collide at WDW - One Killed Is this the first time a monorail has crashed at WDW? __________________

07-05-2009, 07:21 AM	#13
KevinYee Moderator MiceAge Columnist Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 1,412	Re: Monorails Collide at WDW - One Killed I think you may be right. I need to go get my archive photos of the monorail to see what's track and what's train! __________________ Kevin Yee MiceAge Columnist I am the author of several Disney books: Mouse Trap Tokyo Disney Made Easy The Walt Disney World Menu Book 101 Things You Never Knew About Walt Disney World 101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland Magic Quizdom (The Disneyland Trivia Book) My other Disney blog (also available via RSS) “The press [should be] a watchdog. Not an attack dog. Not a lapdog. A watchdog. Now, a watchdog can't be right all the time. He doesn't bark only when he sees or smells something that's dangerous. A good watchdog barks at things that are suspicious.” – Dan Rather

07-05-2009, 07:22 AM	#15
Young at Heart Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 92	Re: Monorails Collide at WDW - One Killed I just woke up on the West coast and saw the terrible news. My deepest sympathies to the CM's family and the WDW cast. This will be a terrible shock. Question; don't the WDW monorails have block lights, like the railroad does? DLR's monorails do, to warn about a monorail train on the block ahead. __________________ "Once upon a time there was a Magic Kingdom made of hopes and childhood fantasies A timeless place where every land was filled with wonder A place where everyone who enters its gates will be given the gift of the Young at Heart"

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