Disney Monorail Crash Video
Below is video captured by a Walt Disney World guest of the Monorail crash that killed 21-year-old driver Austin Wuennenberg.
The Disney Monorail accident occurred around 2:00 a.m. this morning on the Epcot monorail beam transporting guests between the transportation hub and the Epcot theme park.
Two trains collided, killing Wenneberg – the driver of the Pink train, and injuring the driver of the Purple train. The trains were carrying five passengers and two employees, none of whom were hurt.
There has been no word on what caused the crash, though it is possible that fatigue may have played a role.
Disney issued the following statement:
Today, we mourn the loss of our fellow cast member. Our hearts go out to his family and to those who have lost a friend and co-worker. 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 approximate next steps.
View the Walt Disney World Monorail crash video and photo of Austin Wuennenberg below.
Filed under: Across the Nation
thanks for providing this. someone [probably disney] is trying to make it difficult for people to see this.
I think it was a combination of mechanical failure and fatigue.
When I was down in May 09 for 10 days, I was on the pink train when the sensors went off for a break problem. I was in the front with the driver (not the kid that was killed) and they said each car has it’s own set of breaks and there is a light to let them know if something is out of wack. He wrote it off as a routine check/maintenance.
You just have to wonder if someone is “cutting expenses” in the hardened economy by waiting a while on routine maintenance and early replacement of routine parts to avoid issues.
we were travelling on this route a week ago and would like to express our sincere and deepest sympathy to the drivers family
There’s a couple things that could have caused this, though one factor that’s been drawing some attention is the trains themselves. The monorails (built by ALWEG) only have a service life of fifteen years. These monorails were twenty years old. Well beyond the age that Disney should have retired and replaced them.