When you work at a Disney theme park you don’t have to look far for a chance to make a difference in the community as well. This year Disneyland Resort Cast Members are shedding pounds, making healthier choices and feeding the hungry in Orange County this summer, all as part of the Disneyland Resort Weight Loss Challenge for Charity. The Resort is partnering with the Orange County Food Bank to administer the challenge, during which a pound of food will be donated for every pound lost by a Cast Member.

The Challenge launched this week, with official weigh-in locations throughout the Resort confidentially recording the starting weight of participating Cast Members. Midway through the Challenge, there will be an additional official weigh-in for tracking progress. The program will culminate with final results being recorded during the week of September 14. As an extra benefit, one additional pound of food will be donated to the Food Bank for every participant who enrolls in the Challenge.

“The Weight Loss Challenge is a great opportunity for our Cast Members to do something positive for themselves and for others,” said Kristin Nolt Wingard, senior vice president, public affairs and an executive champion for health and wellness at Disneyland Resort. “While we lose, the Orange County Food Bank wins.”

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I’m not sure we’re getting any closer to a definitive cause of the recent Monorail Accident that resulted in the death of one cast member. We’re not even sure there is only one cause. But a report in the Orlando Sentinel does reveal a new detail and confirms some of what has general been accepted as the actual timeline of events.

What was confirmed was that the person in the monorail maintenance shop that was responsible for switching the track from the EPCOT loop to the spur line failed to make the switch, but then reported that he had.

The new part of the timeline is that the manager who was reported to be off property at the time of the accident was approved to be there and was only coordinating the monorail radio temporarily while another cast member was on the way to the station to relieve a sick employee.

So the investigation continues…

One more note: earlier today the Orlando Sentinel reported that the family of the cast member who was killed has asked a judge to force Disney to preserve evidence in the case as it might be needed in a future lawsuit.

Update: turns out the driver of Monorail Pink was placed on administrative leave as well. All the leave is with pay pending the results of the investigation.

Local TV channel WESH is reporting that two Disney World employees have been suspended pending further investigation of the Monorail Collision. The two cast members are reportedly the Manager who was on-duty as Monorail Control after the original employee called in sick and a worker in the Monorail shop who was responsible for running the switches that failed to change and left Monorail Pink on a collision course with Monorail Purple.

Although the investigation is not complete, it makes me wonder which policies these cast members violated to deserve their suspension or if the suspension is just cautionary until everything is wrapped up.

Previously: NTSB investigating Monorail Collision, Disney World Cast Member dead in Monorail Crash.

The Orlando Sentinel has posted a very moving video of Austin Wuennenberg the monorail pilot killed in the tragic Sunday morning accident at Walt Disney World. The video was recorded just a few weeks ago when the Cimino family of Briton, Conn., took a ride in the nose cone with Austin.

In the video you see Austin doing the job he obviously loved so much and doing it very well. He interacted with, entertained, educated, and awarded the Cimino family, and especially one little boy whose dream Austin was making come true, with a memory that they will cherish forever.

Now the Cimino family has done the same for us. We get a chance to see Austin in his element and shining in his role of Monorail Pilot. It’s magical moments like this that helps set Walt Disney’s theme parks apart from any other. Austin was just doing what so many of his fellow cast members do so well. But it’s nice to have this as a tribute to the young pilot who died before he could make many more dreams come true as I’m sure he would have.

See the video and read the Cimino family’s story.

Update:  The National Transportation and Safety Board has just said that they will be investigating this accident.(via Orlando Sentinel) This is interesting to me since I called the NTSB on Sunday to ask, but could only leave a voice mail asking if they would. I just received an email from them with the announcement.

I feel this is good news for safety of the system as the NTSB will have expertise in investigating similar systems. Despite what Disney thinks about classifying the Monorails as an Amusement Attraction they really are a form of railway and that is the arena of the NTSB.

As you may have heard the monorail system at Walt Disney World has been cleared by OSHA to return to normal operations. That this happened so soon seems to lend weight to the idea that this tragedy was human error and not technology related.

Disney has worked overnight to add extra safety features to the Monorail switch system. It’s my understanding that they’ve also added an extra body with responsibility for having visual confirmation that each switch has been fully locked into place before allowing any train to proceed. It will be interesting to see what other solutions are implemented (cast member in the rear cone, a pilot always facing in the direction of travel, etc).

For now, at least, there will be no guests allowed in the cones. The Disney spokesman said this was out of courtesy to the monorail pilots, and I think that’s the right thing to do. When you’ve lost a friend and co-worker the last thing you need is the additional strain of having to play host to four kids bouncing around the cabin.

Finally, as I posted earlier, Disney fans were successful in getting the hashtag of #Austin on the twitter trending topics. This made me think of @DisneyParks the official twitter account for the Disney Parks division. I think it is probably too much to expect Disney to be tweeting through a disaster like this. There really wasn’t anything they could add like safety advice or good news. But I really think it would have been nice if their first post could have joined in the Disney fans efforts to honor the pilot with the hashtag in their tweet. That said, we all join in their sentiment.

Disney fans united on twitter today in honor of Austin Wuennenberg, the 21 year old Monorail Pilot who died in the tragic Monorail collision accident at Walt Disney World in the early morning hours of July 5th 2009. As you can see in this screen capture of of Twitter Search the hashtag #Austin has been on the trending topics list for more than 25 minutes as of this posting.

Previously: Former Monorail Pilot gives possible explanation of accident, Monorail Accident at Walt Disney World leaves Cast Member Dead.

Update: NTSB preliminary report is now out with best details about accident so far.

A former Monorail Pilot has made a video with what looks to be the best explanation so far of exactly what happened this morning at 2AM that resulted in the tragic death of a fellow Railie.

Previously: Disney World Cast Member dead in Monorail Accident.

Update: NTSB preliminary report is now out with best details about accident so far.

Update: See latest details below and new story on the return to service of the monorail system and the involvement of the NTSB in the investigation.

One cast member has been confirmed dead in a collision between two Monorails at Walt Disney World. The crash occurred on the EPCOT line near the Ticket and Transportation Center station around 2AM as operations were winding down following 4th of July fireworks. The pilot of the second monorail was transported to the hospital with minor injuries. No guest injuries are reported.

Click Orlando has the story and a video of the aftermath as guests and cast rush to reach the monorail pilot who is trapped in the pilot cone of the monorail train. The video commences shortly after the crash. One family is shown being evacuated from the purple monorail and everyone looks okay. A monorail cast member is seen directing guests to the escape hatch on the top of the nose cone before requesting the video be turned off.

Disney has said the monorail system is shut down for inspection and alternate transportation will be provided for today’s guests.

While the monorail is piloted by a cast member, each monorail is supposed to automatically apply its brakes if it closes within two “hold points” of another monorail. However the operator is allowed to override that system in some circumstances. This is the first fatal accident in the 38 year history of the monorail system at Walt Disney World.

Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of the cast member involved in this terrible accident.

Vice President of public affairs at Walt Disney World Mike Griffin has released this company statement:

“Today, we mourn the loss of our fellow cast member. Our hearts go out to his family and those who have lost a friend and coworker. The safety of our guests and cast members is always our top priority. The monorail is out of service and we will continue to work closely with law enforcement to determine what happened and the appropriate next steps.”

This article will be updated with news as it comes in…

The name and age of the monorail pilot who died is now being reported. He was 21 years old.

Some early thoughts and speculation:

The earlier story about Monorail Pink backing into the station and hitting Monorail Purple appears to be true. Putting together a number of sources, including this video from a former monorail pilot, we’ve learned that Monorail Pink was in process of transferring from the EPCOT line to the Resort line so it could then head back to the maintenance barn at the end of the night. The pilot in Pink was erroneously told that the switch was on, but it was not. So Pink backed up thinking it was heading toward the open resort line berth in the TTC concourse, but it was really heading toward the occupied EPCOT berth in the TTC.

(Updated to reflect witness reported location of Purple) Meanwhile Purple was parked over the Esplanade/Ticket booths just before the TTC station waiting for Pink to clear the EPCOT line after having been cleared. Purple had been cleared to enter the station on MAPO override from its previous hold position. Why was Purple stopped there? and why the pilot in Purple did not react when Pink came backward down the line to his train we will probably never know.

What follows is speculation based on a similar incident that happened at Disneyland. At Disneyland a monorail was given clearance to come out of the barn onto the main Disneyland line, but the switch operator at monorail base was slow to throw the switch. The net result of this Disneyland Monorail accident was a monorail nearly torn in two as the switch between tracks opened underneath it.

If a similar thing happened last night, the monorail base operator might have thrown the switch hoping he got it open before Pink reached it, but that act probably also switched off the power to Purple, so it was stuck in station while Pink approached and Pink was traveling at a high enough rate of speed that the collision was unavoidable. Purple was in station loaded with passengers and all doors closed which tells me it was ready to go (or had just arrived, but I don’t see passengers arriving from EPCOT to the TTC at 2:ooAM when EPCOT closed so much earlier).

Obviously Disney will complete their own investigation in partner with the investigating authorities. I do not mean to lay the blame and any one’s feet when I only have some of the facts. So far, these are just the way the signs are pointing. I will continue to provide updates as I encounter sufficiently persuasive information.

(updated 2:50pm in orange) I’m updating my previous thoughts below based on information that is now coming in from multiple sources. Monorail Purple was stopped in station. Monorail Pink was backing up after either having broken down departing TTC or preparing to switch to the track that leads back to the maintenance barn at the end of the night. No one told Pink that Purple was in the station, however, I’m hearing that Monorail Control did clear Pink to return to the Concourse. If Pink was just switching tracks, it would not normally involve returning all the way to the TTC before hand.

Pink could have been traveling at 15mph, which is the limit for override in reverse. Why didn’t Purple back out of the way (lots of reasons, I’m sure). But it would explain why the trains collided, all the action took place within one ‘block’ so MAPO wouldn’t have triggered or would have been overridden for this procedure.

What’s clear is that multiple failures had to happen for this tragedy to occur. A late night, a train broken down and cleared to back up with no clear visual of the track behind him (why aren’t camera’s in the rear cone?), a monorail in station that wasn’t reported by Monorail control (was no one in the control tower at TTC who could confirm a clear station for Monorail Pink?), and a driver in the cone of Monorail Purple unaware or unable to back out of the way of the train returning to the station in front of him.

This very tragic accident does not look like system failure at all. But rather a very rare confluence of multiple human errors. That does not make it any less tragic, or any less preventable. Let’s be glad it didn’t happen during the high traffic period after the fireworks.

One more thing: the photo taken of the two trains stuck together while over the TTC Esplanade appears to have been snapped after the video. They had to move the two trains back so the nose cone of Monorail Pink could be in station and that pilot could be evacuated.

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