Driver killed in Monorail crash @ WDW

[Princeton78]

Posted: 7/5/09 at 10:11am

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/05/u.s.disney.monorail/index.html

My thoughts and prayers go out to the driver and his family.

That said, I'm being flamed over on the Dis Boards for saying that I hope the monorail system is up and running smoothly again for my trip to the Grand Floridian (finally!) in August.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 7/5/09 at 10:30am

It will be up and running by Tuesday. Disney is great at cleaning up the carnage and returning to being the happiest place of earth.

[tommyboy]

Posted: 7/5/09 at 10:31am

...And sweeping the dirt under the carpet.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 7/5/09 at 10:41am

You know he didn't die until he reached the hospital! No one ever dies at the Magic Kingdom!

[jasonf]

Posted: 7/5/09 at 11:07am

We're not going till the beginning of the month, but we were thinking the same thing - hope it's back up and running by then especially since we're at the Contemporary.

It sounds like the CM wasn't doing what he was supposed to do - those things have redundant safety systems - for them to fail seems like it would have to be human error.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 7/5/09 at 1:36pm

It's about the same as Disneyland advertising the new dragon in Fantasmic (Beginning the 12th of last month)...

As of now, there is still no dragon in the show. They don't tell anyone ahead of time and when asked about it at the park, they said the dragon has "stage fright". My connections tell me the whole thing fell on itself and crushed the armature. They have no idea when it will be in. 4th is their busiest summer weekend, and that's now come and gone with no dragon.

I wrote to them asking for a refund since I've worked at the park and have been on all the rides and I was coming to se the 'New Summer Spectalular!" and they said they are sorry and maybe the dragon will be working the next time I visit...

No refund, just a big "Screw You".

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 7/5/09 at 1:40pm

From what I read, apparently the monorail (pink) got the "OK" to run the beams in reverse back into the station by EPCOT, and nobody was in the central control system and that monorail train crashed into the purple train, killing the driver of the purple train. So the killed driver wasn't at fault.

http://www.clickorlando.com/video/19956043/index.html

Also, the monorail system in Disneyland (California) is running only one train for the time being. As for DisneyWorld, there are three different routes, so I'm sure the two (the ones that service Magic Kingdom) would be up and running before the EPCOT one starts running again.