Disney monorail running again after deadly crash

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

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Sunday's wreck was the first fatal accident in the monorail's 38 years of operation.

LAKE BUENA VISTA (Central Florida News 13)-- The Walt Disney World monorail is up and running. As of 2:30 p.m., it was available to resort guests on the Magic Kingdom side, but the trains to Epcot are still closed.

A crash early Sunday morning killed cast member Austin Wuennenberg, 21, a monorail pilot.

Testing on the trains started around 10 a.m. Monday.

Wuennenberg was killed when the trains collided just outside the Transportation and Ticket Center, located at the parking lot of the Magic Kingdom.

Extra buses were brought in Monday to transport visitors to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and the various Disney resorts the monorail serviced while the trains were down.

Wuennenberg, a student at Stetson University and a graduate from Celebration High School, had worked for eight months as a monorail pilot. He described his job on Facebook as "running the highway in the sky." He was driving Monorail Pink when the collision happened around 2 a.m. Sunday.

Eight people were onboard the trains, including six guests who were medically screened and released without serious injury.

The driver of the other train was not hurt, as he was in the car on the end opposite the collision. He was taken to Florida Hospital Celebration as a precaution.

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Rhonda Rivas, visiting from Sugarland, Texas, described what she saw moments after the crash.

"We had walked down the ramp, and we were standing in the area for the trolleys, and at that point, that's when we heard the impact," Rivas told News 13. "We heard the crash, we heard the screaming, and when we turned around, I saw the women who were actually walking underneath the monorail, and they just kept turning around and screaming. It was that frightening for everybody."

Other visitors News 13 spoke with following the accident said they were shocked that this tragedy happened on Disney property.

"We're on there all the time," said Tom Kranauer, a guest from Tampa. "We've ridden in the front, and I always thought it was probably the safest transportation in the country, if not in the world, because it transports millions of people every year. I'm just completely amazed that something could even happen like this."

Investigators with Disney, Orange County and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration continue to piece together what led to the crash.

Investigators with the Orange County Sheriff's Office Homocide Unit told News 13 they are working to obtain computer data from the monorail system and Disney radio transmission information from the accident.

Sheriff's officials said Disney officials are fully cooperating with the investigation.

Sunday's wreck was the first fatal accident in the monorail's 38 years of operation.

This story is from our Bright House Networks partner, Central Florida News 13.

Should Disney be subject to state inspection?

As a federal review of the accident continues, many are wondering why the monorail, not to mention the rest of Disney, isn't subject to state oversight.

Disney is one of the few places in Florida that doesn't have to follow state law when it comes to inspections of its rides or the monorail.

Some say tougher regulation could have prevented the tragedy over the weekend.

But, decades ago, the state legislature carved out a special exemption. Because Disney and other theme parks have their own safety programs, they don't have to worry about interference from Tallahassee.

"There are going to be people who are going to break their arm or scratch their arm or someone's going to have a heart attack and so on, but that would be true of resorts, cruise ships, or anything else when you're talking about that kind of volume of people," said Terry McElroy with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Florida's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services does conduct inspections of traveling carnivals and theme parks without safety programs.

Officials with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services say that even if Disney were regulated by the state, they'd still have no authority to inspect the monorail because technically it's not a ride.