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monorail safety

Report on Disney World Monorail Accident of July 2009 released by NTSB

The monorail station could be looking like this a lot more when Disney institutes its new reduced hours for the trains.

All the adjustments in policy and procedures have already been made, employees disciplined, OSHA fines levied, and the family’s lawsuit settled. All that we have been waiting for is the final federal investigation’s Accident Report. Today the National Transportation and Safety Board released that report putting a period on the end of a long sentence that I’m sure Disney World would like to put behind them.

That sentence started with a conflagration of errors by operators, management, and poor enforcement of existing policies that ended in the tragic death of a Walt Disney World Monorail Operator early on the morning of July 5th, 2009.

The report itself, issued this afternoon (releasing something on a holiday is almost like intentionally burying it, I wonder if that was coordinated in any way?), is written a very factual manner and in a plainly stated way. The facts outlined clearly put majority of the blame on inadequate procedures and failure to enforce the exact safety procedures that would have prevented the accident. To its credit Disney has made a lot of changes to correct what went wrong, but even if Disney had just enforced one of the common sense errors, this tragedy could have been averted.

Read More »Report on Disney World Monorail Accident of July 2009 released by NTSB

SUV strikes Monorail Pillar closes EPCOT loop for an hour

Disney fans are everywhere. No, she wasn’t driving the SUV that struck the Monorail support pillar, but Amanda Tinney (of DisneyEveryDay.com) was on the scene yesterday in the EPCOT Parking lot and took the above photo on her mobile phone. Those beams are pretty strong,… Read More »SUV strikes Monorail Pillar closes EPCOT loop for an hour

Disney World reports on Monorail Safety Enhancements

Today Walt Disney World received the OSHA report listing its findings following its investigation of the Monorail accident last summer that resulted in the death of a cast member. The Resort was also fined $44,000 and provided a list of changes it needs to implement.… Read More »Disney World reports on Monorail Safety Enhancements

NTSB Updates Monorail Investigation Progress

In a letter sent to the local press today the NTSB has updated the status of the investigation into the Monorail accident of July 5th at Walt Disney World. In addition to interviews with the employees involved, they’ve begun to review documents provided by Walt Disneyworld.

Interestingly the letter claims they’ve received ‘most’ of what they requested. This includes: “employee records showing training, work history and work hours; monorail standard operating procedures; and mechanical maintenance and inspection history of the trains and switch mechanism.” The investigators are being thorough, that’s good to see. Let’s hope they’re also looking at comparisons to historical practices versus what was in place at the parks at the time.

Look for the report to be finished in about 6 months.

The full text of the letter is below the cut:

Read More »NTSB Updates Monorail Investigation Progress