Monorail Crash At Disney World Leaves Employee Dead

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Two monorail trains crashed early Sunday morning in the Magic Kingdom section of Walt Disney World, killing one train's operator, emergency officials said.

Disney said it was the first fatal crash in the monorail's 38-year history in the park.

The transit system, which shuttles thousands of visitors around the sprawling resort each day, was shut down while authorities investigated the holiday weekend wreck.

The monorail operator died at the scene of the crash, which happened around 2 a.m., said Bo Jones, deputy chief for Reedy Creek Fire Department. The other train operator was uninjured, but was taken to a hospital because he was emotionally shaken. Jones said five park guests were treated at the scene, though the Orange County Sheriff's office said six were treated.

"To see the accident, to see the scene of what had happened and the fact that there was a life that was lost, it was very sad. It was very somber," Jones said.

Disney's senior spokesman Michael Griffin identified the driver as 21-year-old Austin Wuennenberg. Griffin would not discuss how long Wuennenberg had been with Disney or the circumstances surrounding the crash. Disney officials also declined to discuss how the monorail system operates.

"They are extremely rare," Griffin said of accidents at the park. "The safety of our guests and cast are a top priority above all else."

It is unclear what caused the crash, Jones said. Orange County Sheriff's officials are investigating.

Story continues below

A spokeswoman for Stetson University in nearby DeLand confirmed that Wuennenberg was a student at the school. A woman standing in front of Wuennenberg's home in Kissimmee declined to comment Sunday afternoon and directed questions to Disney officials, saying the family wanted "private time to grieve."

One of Wuennenberg's former Stetson classmates, Brandon Ross, said the 21-year-old had scheduled his classes around his Disney job and took precautions if he was working a night shift. Ross said his friend would make the hour-long drive from DeLand to the Orlando area the day before his shift so he wouldn't be tired when he operated the train.

"He seemed to be a pretty safe person," said Ross, 22. "He's not reckless at all."

Wuennenberg studied computer science, said Ross, who sometimes asked for his help on school projects and called him smart and talented. "He was really good with computers."

Jones said the crash happened at the park's ticket and transportation center. About a dozen guards wearing blue Disney security uniforms guarded the monorail station Sunday morning and prevented visitors from approaching.

Griffin would not comment on a video posted on the Web site of Orlando TV station WKMG. The clip, apparently shot by a guest at the park, shows a man pounding on the door to the driver's compartment after the crash.

"This is such a close-knit community," Griffin said. "Our hearts go out to Austin's family. It's a sad day here."

Catherine McKenna, 45, and her family were visiting the theme park from Ireland. The family had planned to use the monorail to travel to the Magic Kingdom last Friday but said they were told the train was broken. They took a ferry but returned on the monorail later that day.

"It's very sad," McKenna said. "You would be very afraid to use it again."

Disney spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez said the park had boosted other forms of transport _ such as ferries, boats and buses _ for visitors Sunday.

"Our guests are getting around fine," Suarez added.

Seventeen-year-old Ethan Meus, visiting from Dubuque, Iowa, said he and his family took the monorail to dinner at a resort hotel Saturday night. Meus watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the monorail on the way back to his hotel and said he didn't notice any problems with the train.

"It's pretty shocking to hear that a driver was killed," Meus said.

"You would think it would be so safe," said 20-year-old Lauren Shoebottom, who was visiting the park from London. "You don't expect it on holiday, do you?"

Griffin issued a statement offering condolences to the employee's family and saying the monorail was closed.

"It's a bit shocking," said 22-year-old Danielle Williams, of London. "Disney seems so perfect."

___

Associated Press contributor Amy Green reported from Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Comments

[mapleaforever]

Marge Simpson was right.

Give a student 2 hours of traning and this will happen, no matter the failsafes in place.

[ItWillHaveBeenRainingMen]

Let me preface this by expressing my sympathy for the Monorail engineer and his loved ones.
That said, "SeldMBreak,"I call the big one Bitey," "the celebrity on the maiden voyage was Gallagher"...and so forth.

[JScott]

And I'm sure the deceased employee had signed release forms so the estate can't sue and of course they were quick to get any passengers/guests to sign too, I"ve heard that's the very first thing they do when there is an accident.....just like the one at Big Thunder RXR in Anaheim a few years back but the family sued and I think won damages anyway.

[MiguelO]

I really hate all these people accusing the driver of "texting" or talking on his cell phone. When I was fired by the nice Disney folks due to, at that time yet to be diagnosed diabetes, and unstable energy levels that made me miss many days of work therefore "tripping the attendance matrix", the company was in the process of laying off most of the maintenance department at their Animal Kingdom, a few months later a friend who still works for Disney told me that they had done away with the "stand by" maintenance man at the "Festival of The Lion King" show. Mind you this was the guy who made sure the motorized stage units (actually old floats from a Lion king parade at Disneyland in California) would stop at the correct place in the performance venue (can't call it a theatre because it was not a theatre). Many times during morning test the whole system had to be "rebooted" because the units did not know where they were, and would not stop at the right location, many times they almost crashed the doors and would have ended up outside the venue. Cutting down maintenance is a good way to save money that it is not immediately noticeable to the guests.
By the way, does anybody know how many hours had the driver been working that day? 12, 14, 16?

[gopSTEALSyourTAXmoney]

Amusement parks are death traps. I wouldn't get on any of those rides for anything. It's a trip to the graveyard.

[billbb]

Don't overreact... Most amusement park rides are safe, given that they are there to porvide the illusion of danger. That said, far more oversight is needed of the contradictory and ineffective mix of regulations for parks, which often try to keep such problems secret for commercial reasons.

For example, the Disney monoails, being classed as an amusement park ride, are exempt from FTA and FRA regulations of crash worthiness. I did note that the Disney trains do not have any sort of anticlimber, those horizontal striped steel bars above the couplers which are there to prevent one railcar from rising above another's floor in a crash http://www.chicago-l.org/trains/gallery/images/6000/cta6600e.jpgg) These prevent 'telescoping,' which is where one car in a crash rises enough above the other enough to push inside the carbody of the other, like the sections of an old-fashioned telescope. Telescoping appears to be exactly what happened to the operator's cab in this accident.

[dochemlock]

I drove the Monorails there for a year. There are a lot of safety systems in place. Late at night or early in the morning when they are taking trains on or off line weird things can happen. They are also usually empty at this time. There are fail safes in the train that keeps them from getting too close to each other. It's called a MAPO system. Sometimes these can be over ridden on command. The TTC would be a weird place for this to happen. From the positioning it looks like one train would be coming down the hill on the "exterior beam" From the Contemporary Resort. It's a steep hill leading right into the TTC. But That would be backward unless they were removing the train. It just doesn't seem to be able to get fast enough there to cause that much damage. I'd really like to hear the truth on this one but Disney is very secretive concerning accidents. I feel sorry for the driver.

[billbb]

By the way - MAPO stands for "Mary Poppins," the movie which provided much money for the Disney organization, part of which went into safety upgrades. That was 1964-65, though. Stations have always been the bane of safety systems, because trains are naturally close together there,whether mororails, streetcars, metros or roller coasters.

[SeeJaneRunning]

Hmm, this must be W's fault, right? Crumbling infrastructure, right?

[doublehelix68]

Its a private business seejane, so it would not be apart of the national infrastructure upkeep.

"W" may be responsible for the deregulation of safety standards to save large corporations like Disney some money at the tourists expense in exchange for a healthy political contribution. More likely that a number of K street lobbyists pushed for the law to be changed to prevent the unfortunate employee's family from suing for negligence on Disney's part. That or to prevent a union from being formed to keep it's employees from getting any decent health care.

But nice try Jane.

[billbb]

There are so many who shill for the Republicants, looking to duck blame on everything they have supported for so many decades (back to at least the 1920s).

Walt Disney hated unions, and the Disney Organization has done everything possible to keep them out of the parks. There is no way a high school temp should be driving a train with that kind of capacity. Thanks to exemptions provided by their political pals, Disney ducks many regulations that would otherwise cover such a transit system.

[LMPE]

That theme park just became Dismal World.

[Molly Markley]

There are a bunch of fail-safes on the monorail, which makes it likely that either someone in control screwed up, or that the driver simply overrode the system. You cannot come within 4 monorail lengths of another monorail, and if a monorail is too close, control shuts it down. I remember a monorail pilot telling my family this when we were there in January and rode in the cockpit. Someone is at fault in either of those positions.

[Rangergirl]

This is a terrible accident....I do believe however that they will probablly find out after an investigation that the driver was texting....This has happened all to frequently lately.....There could be a mechanical failure...I don't know what kind of braking system they have on the train....My guess is texting...inattentive driving.

[deckard70]

Although YouTube is taking down clips of this accident as fast as they can (why, I don't know), there's a couple still pics here that show how the driver in the stationary car had no chance of survival:
http://www.wesh.com/slideshow/news/19956082/detail.html

[aliceautumn]

This is just awful. Those train operators were so nice to us. We got to ride up front with them twice on our last trip. They were super safe, very friendly and so nice to our kids, giving the Co-pilot Licenses wehn we exited the train. My heart goes out to this young mans family and friends.

[Ohioan730]

I like having Disneyworld around. It just helps to know that at least in one place on earth people are ecstatically happy. However, this is like a cold glass of water in your face. Happiness takes a lot of work and safety precautions. I've been hearing that Disneyworld has been relaxing its inspection schedules lately. How tragic to die in the "happiest" place on earth.

[Paladine]

My Husbands company, a railway, hires Students for the summer. A few years back a young Fella, 18 or so, was impaled by steel rails in the back of a railway car.

He was not prepared to work in a safe manner, he was too green. BUT his Management Dad pulled some strings and got him hired. Some favor.

[wordvarc]

Disney is again ignoring adequate maintenance schedules... just as before the lethal "Thunder Mountain" crash in Anaheim several years ago.