Disney monorail crash

[Mike C]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/05/u.s.disney.monorail/index.html

It happened at 2am, perhaps the driver fell asleep? The driver was
killed but no passengers were injured.

Mike C

[Jay Andress]

I am shocked that Disney doesn't have technology on these vehicles to prevent this. If this was an entirely manually controlled system...it makes an interesting statement following the Washington DC crash...which was completely automated.

--
new contact info: jay.a...@monomobile.com

[Jerry Roane]

Jay

I am surprised they had someone that young driving.  I rode up in the driver's seat this year when I went to Disney World.  I took some photographs of the driver's chair.  It is all manual.  2:00 AM is the key.  Expecting people to work late nights comes with some sleeping on the job.  The human clock is set to 24 hours and light hours and when you try to shift work hours around you can get some sleepy workers. 

The Disney monorails were designed a long time ago.  They were recently refurbished but they have a driver just like a bus.  I am nearly positive Disney will add automatic braking to another monorail before they come back on line.  The technology is in the marketplace now and cheap compared to the cost of collision.  The monorails are electric which makes them extremely easy to add this safety feature control.

ref ( Volvo's "city safety" technology, standard in the XC60, is able to stop the car automatically in busy city traffic when the car runs at a low speed.

In combination with a collision warning system, the technology can also provide braking at any speed, creating a new safety legend in the history of Volvo.  from: http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009autoshanghai/2009-04/20/content_7694464.htm )

Jerry Roane    

[Mike C]

It seems that this happened during the one time of day when the
"MAPO" (which is the automated collision avoidance system) is turned
OFF - during a track switch operation. From what I gather, the front
monorail went forward past the switch, then waited for the switch to
move. Once he got (incorrect) confirmation that the track was moved,
he proceeded backwards onto what should have been a separate line.
Instead, because the switch never occurred, he plowed backwards into
the same line he came from, and into the stationary monorail which now
occupied the station the front vehicle had just left.

The impact was only 15mph, but that was apparently enough to kill the
driver of the stationary train, as the driver compartments appeared to
collapse into each other. Thank God there were no passengers riding in
the driver compartment that night (they often allow guests to ride up
front).

The following discussion provides more detail:

http://micechat.com/forums/news/119188-monorail-crash-kills-driver-stuns-passengers-disney-world.html

This is, of course, mostly just speculation at this point, but it
seems to come from people who would know.

As usual, there were multiple points of failure involved in this
accident. The switch was poorly designed so that it must deactivate
the MAPO safety measure during a switch operation. The control center
incorrectly informed the driver that the track switch had been made.
The driver (not the one who died) then backed into the station without
checking his rear view mirrors. And the other driver failed to notice
the oncoming train in time to push the stationary monorail into
reverse. At present, it appears that all failures were caused by human
error, not automation breakdowns.

I suspect that nightly switch operations will get an overhaul as a
result of this accident, but normal operations (with the MAPO safety
system in place) will not be affected.

Mike C.

On Jul 5, 11:02 pm, Jerry Roane <jerry.ro...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Jay
>
> I am surprised they had someone that young driving.  I rode up in the
> driver's seat this year when I went to Disney World.  I took some
> photographs of the driver's chair.  It is all manual.  2:00 AM is the key.
> Expecting people to work late nights comes with some sleeping on the job.
> The human clock is set to 24 hours and light hours and when you try to shift
> work hours around you can get some sleepy workers.
>
> The Disney monorails were designed a long time ago.  They were recently
> refurbished but they have a driver just like a bus.  I am nearly positive
> Disney will add automatic braking to another monorail before they come back
> on line.  The technology is in the marketplace now and cheap compared to the
> cost of collision.  The monorails are electric which makes them extremely
> easy to add this safety feature control.
>

> ref ( Volvo's *"city safety" technology*, standard in the XC60, is able to

> stop the car automatically in busy city traffic when the car runs at a low
> speed.
>
> In combination with a collision warning system, the technology can also
> provide braking at any speed, creating a new safety legend in the history of

> Volvo.  from:http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009autoshanghai/2009-04/20/co...)

>
> Jerry Roane
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at 9:33 PM, Jay Andress <andress....@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I am shocked that Disney doesn't have technology on these vehicles to
> > prevent this. If this was an entirely manually controlled system...it makes
> > an interesting statement following the Washington DC crash...which was
> > completely automated.
>

> > On Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at 9:34 AM, Mike C <mwill...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/05/u.s.disney.monorail/index.html
>
> >> It happened at 2am, perhaps the driver fell asleep? The driver was
> >> killed but no passengers were injured.
>
> >> Mike C
>
> > --

> > new contact info: jay.andr...@monomobile.com

[Dennis Manning]

Ironic that the Boston crash sends people scurrying back to manual
operations, and the Disneyland crash seems to be pushing for more automation
as a remedy. I don't think there's any question across many systems that
automated is safer.

Dennis

[Dennis Manning]

Good report. Thanks. It seems that in most crashes airline mass transit or
whatever it takes a series of abnormalities to create the accident.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike C" <mwil...@gmail.com>
To: "transport-innovators" <transport-...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 05, 2009 9:20 PM
Subject: [t-i] Re: Disney monorail crash

[Kirston Henderson]

on 7/5/09 11:20 PM, Mike C at mwil...@gmail.com wrote:

> It seems that this happened during the one time of day when the
> "MAPO" (which is the automated collision avoidance system) is turned
> OFF - during a track switch operation. From what I gather, the front
> monorail went forward past the switch, then waited for the switch to
> move. Once he got (incorrect) confirmation that the track was moved,
> he proceeded backwards onto what should have been a separate line.
> Instead, because the switch never occurred, he plowed backwards into
> the same line he came from, and into the stationary monorail which now
> occupied the station the front vehicle had just left.

Just more evidence that you don't want to design and build systems with
switches, which means no monorails or conventional passenger trains. Those
advocates that cite the safety of monorails because only a few people have
been killed by the systems need to consider the total miles of monorail
operating in the world and the number of monorail trains and train-miles.

The technology of car-based switching has been around for a long time
and there is really no excuse for using mechanical track switching for
anything other than a freight train.

Kirston Henderson
MegaRail®

[Jack Slade]

It also shows up the fallacy of using same track for 2 trains. Back up into a siding?  The station must be on the mainline (mistake) and why not just go on to the next siding (another mistake).   Jack Slade --- On Mon, 7/6/09, Kirston Henderson <kirston....@megarail.com> wrote:

From: Kirston Henderson <kirston....@megarail.com> Subject: [t-i] Re: Disney monorail crash

[Bruce Attah]

> Those
> advocates that cite the safety of monorails because only a few people have
> been killed by the systems need to consider the total miles of monorail
> operating in the world and the number of monorail trains and train-miles.
>

> Kirston Henderson
> MegaRail®

I think it can fairly be said that commuter monorails in Japan carry
enough passengers that their safety reliability statistics can be
trusted. The Chiba Tokyo and Osaka monorails are the biggest. Each is
between 14 and 21 km long and carries tens of millions of passengers
per year without fatality. The Tokyo one has been in business since
1964. Then again the safety record of all transit systems in Japan are
exceptional.

I get the the impression that US light rail systems as a whole have
very poor safety, with most fatalities seeming to be a resulf of
incompetent operation of vehicles or signalling and switching systems.

[Kirston Henderson]

on 7/6/09 6:49 AM, Bruce Attah at bruce...@googlemail.com wrote:

> I think it can fairly be said that commuter monorails in Japan carry
> enough passengers that their safety reliability statistics can be
> trusted. The Chiba Tokyo and Osaka monorails are the biggest. Each is
> between 14 and 21 km long and carries tens of millions of passengers
> per year without fatality. The Tokyo one has been in business since
> 1964. Then again the safety record of all transit systems in Japan are
> exceptional.
>
> I get the the impression that US light rail systems as a whole have
> very poor safety, with most fatalities seeming to be a resulf of
> incompetent operation of vehicles or signalling and switching systems.

That is a pretty impressive safety record in Japan. With regard to LRT
systems accidents in the U.S., they mostly appear to be the result of
collisions with automobiles. This, of course, occurs as a result of
designers having the trains mix with ordinary street traffic in many cases.

Kirston Henderson
MegaRail®

[Bob Dunning]

That is four fatal accidents in the last ten years, and none prior to that.  Not gonna look good in the statistics.  There are not a lot of monorail passenger miles to balance against this.

[Luca Guala]

Bob

I am aware of the following fatal accidents in the last 10 years: Wuppertal (Germany) April 1999 (this is slightly more than 10 years ago), Gardaland (Italy) Fashion Island (Thailand), and now this last one at Disneyworld.

 

A fatal accident happened at Disneyland in 1966:

“In 1966, Thomas Guy Cleveland, 19, of Northridge, California, was struck and killed by the monorail, which then dragged him 40 feet down the track. This occurred on Grad Nite while he was trying to sneak into the park by climbing onto the monorail track”

 

Then there’s the accident to the Transrapid in 2006 that killed 23: by far the worst accident ever to a monorail, if you consider the Transrapid a monorail at all….

 

None in Japan, to my knowledge, despite at least 90% of monorail passenger miles (but probably more) are run in Japan.

Interesting enough, the Wuppertal accident is the only one with fatalities that happened to a monorail in public service.

 

Regards

Luca

 

Ing. Luca Guala
Area Manager - Innovative Transportation
via Marengo 34
09123 - Cagliari
tel +39 070 27 59 39
fax +39 070 20 82 381
mob +39 320 450 6731

www.systematica.net  

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Da: transport-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:transport-...@googlegroups.com] Per conto di Bob Dunning
Inviato: lunedì 6 luglio 2009 18.52
A: transport-...@googlegroups.com
Oggetto: [t-i] Re: Disney monorail crash

[eph]

Is it worth noting the Wuppertal monorail started operation in 1901
with its only fatal accident in April 1999?

F.

On Jul 6, 1:53 pm, "Luca Guala" <gu...@systematica.net> wrote:
> Bob
>
> I am aware of the following fatal accidents in the last 10 years: Wuppertal
> (Germany) April 1999 (this is slightly more than 10 years ago), Gardaland
> (Italy) Fashion Island (Thailand), and now this last one at Disneyworld.
>
> A fatal accident happened at Disneyland in 1966:
>
> “In 1966, Thomas Guy Cleveland, 19, of

> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northridge,_California> Northridge,

> California, was struck and killed by the monorail, which then dragged him 40
> feet down the track. This occurred on

> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grad_Nite> Grad Nite while he was trying to

> sneak into the park by climbing onto the monorail track”
>
> Then there’s the accident to the Transrapid in 2006 that killed 23: by far
> the worst accident ever to a monorail, if you consider the Transrapid a
> monorail at all….
>
> None in Japan, to my knowledge, despite at least 90% of monorail passenger
> miles (but probably more) are run in Japan.
>
> Interesting enough, the Wuppertal accident is the only one with fatalities
> that happened to a monorail in public service.
>
> Regards
>
> Luca
>
> Ing. Luca Guala
> Area Manager - Innovative Transportation
> via Marengo 34
> 09123 - Cagliari
> tel +39 070 27 59 39
> fax +39 070 20 82 381
> mob +39 320 450 6731
>

>  <http://www.systematica.net>www.systematica.net 

[bob]

Luca,

Thanks for the corrections. I did not realize the first Disneyland
accident was that long ago. I knew I was fudging on the Wuppertal
accident. I was not aware of the Fashion Island accident. Did you mention
that in your last accounting?

Considering all the possible ways to deploy a "monorail" it is questionable
whether monorail should be considered a separate distinguishable
technology. It seems as though the whole point of the monorail is having a
reserved right-of-way that minimizes the width of the right-of_way. I
would certainly consider the Transrapid to be monorail, but I suppose we
could exclude it by labeling it Maglev instead. It fits in both
taxonomies.

I do not know of any formal definition of monorail that says it has to be
on wheels.
--
Bob Dunning

On Mon, 6 Jul 2009 19:53:04 +0200, "Luca Guala" <gu...@systematica.net>
wrote:

> Bob
>
> I am aware of the following fatal accidents in the last 10 years:
Wuppertal
> (Germany) April 1999 (this is slightly more than 10 years ago), Gardaland
> (Italy) Fashion Island (Thailand), and now this last one at Disneyworld.
>
>
>
> A fatal accident happened at Disneyland in 1966:
>
> “In 1966, Thomas Guy Cleveland, 19, of

> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northridge,_California> Northridge,

> California, was struck and killed by the monorail, which then dragged him
> 40
> feet down the track. This occurred on

> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grad_Nite> Grad Nite while he was trying to

> sneak into the park by climbing onto the monorail track”
>
>
>
> Then there’s the accident to the Transrapid in 2006 that killed 23: by
> far
> the worst accident ever to a monorail, if you consider the Transrapid a
> monorail at all….
>
>
>
> None in Japan, to my knowledge, despite at least 90% of monorail
passenger
> miles (but probably more) are run in Japan.
>
> Interesting enough, the Wuppertal accident is the only one with
fatalities
> that happened to a monorail in public service.
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> Luca
>
>
>
> Ing. Luca Guala
> Area Manager - Innovative Transportation
> via Marengo 34
> 09123 - Cagliari
> tel +39 070 27 59 39
> fax +39 070 20 82 381
> mob +39 320 450 6731
>

> <http://www.systematica.net> www.systematica.net

[Bruce Attah]

On Jul 7, 3:32 am, bob <b...@dunning.us> wrote:
> Luca,
>
> Thanks for the corrections.  I did not realize the first Disneyland
> accident was that long ago.  I knew I was fudging on the Wuppertal
> accident.  I was not aware of the Fashion Island accident.  Did you mention
> that in your last accounting?
>
> Considering all the possible ways to deploy a "monorail" it is questionable
> whether monorail should be considered a separate distinguishable
> technology.  It seems as though the whole point of the monorail is having a
> reserved right-of-way that minimizes the width of the right-of_way.  I
> would certainly consider the Transrapid to be monorail, but I suppose we
> could exclude it by labeling it Maglev instead.  It fits in both
> taxonomies.  
>
> I do not know of any formal definition of monorail that says it has to be
> on wheels.
> --
> Bob Dunning

The Monorail Society agrees with you in counting Transrapid as
monorail. They also classify monorail technologies according to the
type of guideway and suspension:

http://monorails.org/tMspages/TPindex.html

If we follow that classification, Alweg and Safege have high proven
safety (billions of passenger-km in Japan without fatality), whereas
steel boxbeam (Disney, Gardaland), double-flanged (Wuppertal) and
Transrapid have all had fatalities. All the steel boxbeam monorails
have low operating speeds, and the double-flanged system is obviously
obsolete, because it does not offer practical switching. Considered as
a single technology, monorail is an approach that makes elevated
transit less expensive and more flexible.

> > Mike- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Luca Guala]

Bob
No I was not aware of the Fashion Island accident. I found reference of it while looking for the date of the early Disneyland accident of which I was aware.

From monorails.org:
Bangkok amusement monorail fire. (6/26/02)
Bangkok, Thailand. On Sunday fire broke out on a small amusement park monorail in a Bangkok shopping mall, killing two girls, aged 6 and 8. Lt. Gen. Jongrak Juthanon, deputy chief of Bangkok Metropolitan Police, said a short-circuit caused the fire. He said two other children were injured when they fell out of their car, while several others who were riding the train when the fire broke out escaped unharmed. The flames prevented the two girls from being rescued, and they died before the fire was extinguished, Juthanon said. Police investigators found that the ride had no circuit breaker installed, nor was there any fire-proof insulation between the compartments and the engine. The monorail is at Fashion Island, a mall on the northeastern outskirts of Bangkok.

Almost anywhere in the world the laws and specifications are more lax if a transport system is on private grounds (even if it does public transport service) rather than on public grounds. This is an absurd differentiation and justified only by the interest of the law in finding a culprit (easy in the case of private grounds, more difficult for public grounds) rather than guaranteeing safety.

Regards
Luca

-----Messaggio originale-----
Da: transport-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:transport-...@googlegroups.com] Per conto di bob
Inviato: martedì 7 luglio 2009 4.33
A: transport-...@googlegroups.com
Oggetto: Re: R: [t-i] Re: Disney monorail crash

[Luca Guala]

Yes I guess it is worth. Not only for the safety record (on average, one
person killed every 12.25 years whatever this means) but also because the
accident happened to a 98 years old system: what other 98 years old
transport system would you travel in? not a car, and certainly not an
airplane. Maybe a streetcar...
Cheers
Luca



-----Messaggio originale-----
Da: transport-...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:transport-...@googlegroups.com] Per conto di eph
Inviato: martedì 7 luglio 2009 0.13
A: transport-innovators
Oggetto: Re: R: [t-i] Re: Disney monorail crash