As a bit of a Disney-holic, I was very saddened by this news. (We were just there a week ago, too.)

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/orl-disney-world-monorail-crash-2-070509,0,4851944.story

FROM THE ORLANDO SENTINEL:

A witness painted a hectic picture of the deadly collision of two monorail trains at the Walt Disney World resort early Sunday morning.

The crash that killed 21-year-old monorail pilot Austin Wuennenberg "was the most horrific thing I have ever personally experienced," said Gary Vinson, Jr., who was standing in line waiting for a tram when the accident occurred.

"You could tell from the sound it was going faster than normal, then came the impact which sounded just like a terrible automobile accident," said Vinson, in an email. "I could see a passenger banging on the window....All of the bystanders kept yelling, 'Don't jump' and 'Stay in the train.' Then the train backed up toward the bay, tearing off more pieces that were protruding."

Walt Disney World spokesman Mike Griffin said the crash happened at about 2 a.m. Sunday at the Transportation and Ticket Center, on one of the monorail's last runs of the day.

Walt Disney World officials said they are working with law enforcement officials to find out what happened.

"Our heart goes out to the cast member and the family," Griffin said.

Wuennenberg, a Kissimmee resident who was piloting the one of the monorail trains, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said. One other employee was transported to Florida Hospital Celebration. The second driver's injuries were not serious, Griffin said.

Wuennenberg, who attended Celebration High School, was studying computer science at Stetson University, according to a profile on the social networking site Facebook.com. He began working as a monorail pilot at Walt Disney World in October, according to the profile.

Anyone with information about the incident or snapped photos can e-mail the Orlando Sentinel here.

* WESH.com photos of the scene:http://www.wesh.com/slideshow/news/19956082/detail.html
* ClickOrlando.com video, shot by a guest:http://www.clickorlando.com/video/19956043/index.html



The trains were transporting guests leaving Epcot. Six park guests were on the train during the crash, and were evaluated by paramedics at the scene according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

The park was operating normally Sunday, except for the closure of the monorail. Guests, who were being directed to buses instead, did not seem deterred by the accident.

Park guest Scott Shea, of Winter Springs, had already heard about the accident when he arrived at the park Sunday morning.

"I heard it happened at 2 a.m.," said Shea, who was visiting Walt Disney World with his family. "Just must have been due to tiredness."

The wreck is the first fatal accident in the Walt Disney World monorail system's almost 38-year history. However, at Disneyland in California, there has been at least one death on the monorail system, according to park historians.

According to a former Walt Disney World monorail driver, the vehicles were outfitted with a safety system called Mapo. The former driver, who said he drove the current Mark VI monorail trains, said as soon as the monorail train gets within two checkpoints of another train, it automatically stops.

The former driver said he believes there are about 150 to 200 feet between checkpoints. He said drivers whose monorail train had to be shut down three times were removed permanently from their position.

In a video of Saturday's incident obtained by WKMG-Local 6, several guests gathered on the platform as riders exited the monorail after the crash.

A man who appears to be a Walt Disney World employee told bystanders there were guests and a driver still in the monorail cars.

"Is there somebody in here?" one guest said, referring to the smashed front of one Monorail.

"Yes. The driver," the apparent employee said.

The video shows park guests attempting to get to the trapped driver, banging on the windows of monorail. When the apparent employee realized the incident was being taped, he forced the cameraman to stop filming.

Walt Disney World released the following statement from Griffin regarding the incident:

"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."

Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel


http://www.clickorlando.com/news/19954891/detail.html

Is that really necessary, Disney? Puke.

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"It's like they say, there's no damn business like show business. You had to smile to keep from throwing up." -Billie Holiday

Seriously.

I grew up for a time about, oh,... 2 miles down the road from the original D-land.
After about 5 years straight of going there on an almost weekly basis, I was Disneyed-out.

To the extent that I now go to any D-attraction maybe once every decade.
Blech.

Teh Disney is weeeeeird.

=X>P=


T.V.



-- I AM the people my parents warned me about. --

I've been addicted to Disney World since I was 8 years old. That first trip was in 1984. I've never gotten sick of it. We even have Disney Vacation Club, which is their version of a time share. So I just can't relate to those who are not into it. (Does not compute!)

But different strokes for different folks! I'm not really a beach person, but I know that there's some people who love it. (Frankly, I have a phobia of sharks, so it's very hard for me to go into the ocean.)

At Disney, they call all employees cast members because when you are in front of the public, you are on stage. I can kind of relate to that idea. Heck, when I go to my retail job I might have had a sucky day, but when i'm on that floor I'm Jen the happy retail helper! I totally think of it as getting into character.

On our last trip to Disney (less than two weeks ago) we needed to get something out of our bag that bell services had. So they actually let us go back into the area where the bags are kept. When we were leaving the area, there was literally a sign on the door reminding the CM's to "Smile, you are going on stage" or something like that.

For those of us who really are that into Disney, this accident really disturbs us, as we think of Disney as a very special place, separate from the rest of the world where bad things just don't happen.

to refer to him as a cast member after he's dead. Like, he was a real person, not a shiny happy cartoon character. I'm sure he had more ambitions in his life than driving a monorail, and I'd hate for people to mention in an article about my death, "we're sorry for the temp and her family."

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"It's like they say, there's no damn business like show business. You had to smile to keep from throwing up." -Billie Holiday

It's treating everyone as a valuable part of the experience rather than just the "guy who turns a switch."

I calling everyone castmembers is both nice and accurate for the way Disney functions.

Besides, you want to be called an "extra?"

nt

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"It's like they say, there's no damn business like show business. You had to smile to keep from throwing up." -Billie Holiday

nt

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/orl-bk-disney-monorail-austin-wuennenberg-070709,0,2265988.story

When Diane Cimino of Briton, Conn., heard about a Walt Disney World monorail pilot dying in a Sunday morning accident at the Orlando theme park, she hoped the pilot wasn't Austin Wuennenberg.

It was.

She was devastated. She and members of her family had just returned home from Disney, and one of their memories from Orlando was a monorail ride given to them by Wuennenberg.

Here is an e-mail Cimino sent to the Orlando Sentinel:

All day yesterday my family prayed that the monorail pilot that we had just had the pleasure of meeting and driving around with in the pilot's compartment at Disney World was not "our Austin" who was killed in the accident.

We just returned home on Saturday, and our monorail ride with Austin was the most memorable moment of our week-long stay for our 4-year-old grandson Christyan.

Austin had welcomed us into the pilot's compartment on Tuesday evening. We took a picture of him when he put Christyan into the driver's seat, and also we shot a 10 minute video as he drove us (my husband, Christyan and myself) from the Magic Kingdom and back again.

He was delightful and shared wonderful information with Christyan, who asked him many questions. When asked what the monorail runs on, he answered "Magic", and then added "electricity," as Christyan pressed him for more info.

Christyan is an avid train lover, so the monorail ride was the most important ride for him. He saved his money and was given some Disney dollars and a gift card from friends and bought a toy monorail the first night we arrived.

He [Austin] shared his love for his job, and his college plans with us. He is so sweet on the video interacting with Christyan, naming all the colors of the 12 monorails and answering questions.

Every time we spotted a monorail train after that evening, Christyan would say, "I bet that's our Austin!"

We have not told Christyan what has happened as his heart would break, as ours has. When my husband read it was Austin, he could barely speak from emotion. That's how special our 20 minutes was with that special young man, who made our grandson's dream come true that day.