Fourth of July Monorail Incident

[joanna71985]

I went to MK for the first time today since the incident, and had a hard time getting back on a monorail. It must have been really hard for the pilots to get back out there and work. It is also stupid that they are not allowed to wear the ribbons on their costumes.

They aren't?! Why not??

[turkeyham]

I think they should.

One of my friends who was a police officer for Seal Beach Police Department was going after some susperts in a high speed chase. The suspects made a 45 degree turn off of Seal Beach Blvd to Westminster Blvd heading towards the Del Taco area. Rick apparentsly did not see the medium with a signal light. He crashed into that and died instantly.

I have seen the officers with their badges covered with a black sash since Rick passed. That was 22 years ago. :(

[darph nader]

I went to MK for the first time today since the incident, and had a hard time getting back on a monorail. It must have been really hard for the pilots to get back out there and work. It is also stupid that they are not allowed to wear the ribbons on their costumes.

That is total BS. When the owner of our company passed years ago,we all put black tape across the company name on our uniforms. When the bosses wife passed,we did the same.

[Honda Enoch]

Just read this...

(btw hope it's ok to post this here)

Sources: Monorail collision triggered by worker's failure to activate track switch

The chain of events leading to a fatal crash on Walt Disney World's monorail system was triggered by an employee who mistakenly radioed others that he had activated a track switch, according to multiple people familiar with details of the accident's investigation.

...The accident happened before the second employee had taken over. It occurred while the manager was coordinating the trains temporarily via radio -- off-site and away from a central console that would have shown the track switch had not been activated.

SERIOUSLY?????? Is this normal?

[mapo]

That is total BS. When the owner of our company passed years ago,we all put black tape across the company name on our uniforms. When the bosses wife passed,we did the same.

At Disney, we are not the show. We are cast. PERIOD.

Anything on our costumes that detract from the Disney LOOK for that role makes us stand out. We are a team. We have one united purpose, "to provide the guest with the best vacation" (paraphrase there).

This is where you can tell a cast member from a guest. We understand and accept these requirements as outlined in our Traditions and our shared history.

Please, stop questioning or berating such decisions.

Also, while I know the person who did the collage wanted to pay tribute to our loss, other cast have lost their lives doing their jobs. The collage blows this out of proportion for our recent on the job loss of a monorail pilot.

Things like this make it harder for a lot of us to move forward and do our jobs. While this trajedy will drag on for some time, please let us focus on our purpose and our need to be the safest environment we can be while preserving the magic of Walt Disney World.

You need to let us mourn. And we need to do it in our own individual ways while respecting our role in the show.

Finally, please please please stop PMing me and other cast for information. We cannot discuss the incident, the operational parameters, nor engage in 'hypotheticals' in private or public.

MAPO

[Big Wallaby]

God help the CMs who will encounter SGs over this. I could let pretty much bear anything when encountering SGs and keep my cool. This would not be one of them.

I have had moments myself. Stories to come soon. Needless to say, there *has* been conduct of which I am not proud, but was necessary.

Relieved to know it's not one of our SGT members (BW, sorry about the text at 7am), but also saddened by this incident.

Don't worry... I was still up.

This is the best summary of what happened that I have found. Zazu:

I think not.

Sorry if some of my posts here seem angry -- I am. Safety is not that complicated, but it does require a commitment from both the front-line operators and their entire management to make sure it happens. As we used to say on the railroad, "Safe operation is no accident." No, it's the result of starting with a safe mind-set, and following through.

I have been angry as well, but not *at* any person. My anger is at the mindset, and I realize now that it permeates much more than just Monorails.

my guess would be that some reporters have joined various discussion boards and are mining as much info as they can to keep the story going, and in the process keeping their job by producing stories.

Yes. I am very careful in what I say here.

I went to MK for the first time today since the incident, and had a hard time getting back on a monorail. It must have been really hard for the pilots to get back out there and work. It is also stupid that they are not allowed to wear the ribbons on their costumes.

Actually, we are not now allowed to wear ribbons. Considering that for the first almost two weeks we were allowed to, and even our managers were, they were very good to us, allowing us to do what was necessary to mourn. In the way they've handled us in this, as well as John Keller's death, I cannot fault the Company one iota.