Riding with the driver of the monorail???

[Cinderella's mom]

I read that they stopped the guests riding with the pilots, but is this a permenant thing or only temporary while investigating the accident? We always have ridden up front and wanted to prepare my children if they cannot do this any more. TIA!!!!!!

[JPL]

There is really no information if it's permanent or not. I guess only time will tell.

[Darbylew]

Sorry to hear that you can't ride in with the
pilot on the monorail. We have done it so many
times. It is qutie an adventure for the little
ones.
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT AND GOING BACK IN
NOVEMBER 2009.........

[ransam]

that does <snip> ...i have never done it, but wanted to try it this week.

[Darin M]

I always enjoyed sitting up there with the pilot and learning some extra tidbits about the parks and the view. Hopefully with time, we can meet again, monsieur pilot.

[mouseketeer mom]

When we asked two weeks ago, the pilot felt it was just "for now" and thought we would be able to do it again in the future...

[coneygoil]

I hope it's not permanent! My aunt was all excited about riding in the front for our trip in Oct. I guess we won't be able to do it It's sad that my kids my not be able to ever experience the front like I have all my life.

[DisneyWizard]

The general guess is that it is temporary.

[Imagineer1981]

Perhaps it has become too much of a safety issue. Guests are probably safer in the middle cars then the cabs and also guest could be a distraction to the monorail pilot

[DigitalDaredevil]

I hope it's only temporary, which I imagine it is.
I have had the fortune of riding the front of the monorail about 5 times. I consider it a privilege. Several times I have opted out to allow families to go together when a parent and child were going to ride in the regular cabin so the other parent and child could go up front. I have been up front and always give in to make sure the family stays together, or others who have never ridden before.
Everyone should have the chance, but that is not likely to happen.

[Mousemates]

I certainly hope that is a temporary thing as well...we've done it just about every trip...once during a showing of the fireworks for a MNSSHP, it was super cool. We would certainly miss riding with the pilot.

[CU Tiger]

I also hope that it is not permanent. We usually get lucky one or two time a trip and get to ride up front. My DDs love to get their pilots license each time we go to DW.

[spinnerf]

I would have to believe it is permanent. Could you imagine if there had been a family in the cabin with the unfortunate driver that died? For one Disney would have had to defend that the guests had distracted the driver, and more importantly Disney would be dealing with possibly deceased park guests. Im in NYC and no one is allowed to ride with subway or commuter rail "drivers". There recently was a case when a passenger was riding with a conductor and it made front page news, people got fired. I doubt Disney will revrse this policy.

[Giggy]

I would have to believe it is permanent. Could you imagine if there had been a family in the cabin with the unfortunate driver that died? For one Disney would have had to defend that the guests had distracted the driver, and more importantly Disney would be dealing with possibly deceased park guests. Im in NYC and no one is allowed to ride with subway or commuter rail "drivers". There recently was a case when a passenger was riding with a conductor and it made front page news, people got fired. I doubt Disney will revrse this policy.

The incident was a freak accident, the sort of thing which is highly unlikely but possible in many situations in life. If we went down the road of saying it is too dangerous for a guest to ride up front in case something went wrong then guests wouldn't actually be able to do anything from Space Mountain to Cinderella's Carousel (you could fall off and break an arm you know!) Also from a legal point of view if they are saying it is too dangerous for guests what does it say that they'd put drivers there? I know these consequences I suggested sound ludicros but the point was not to make any snap decisions.

Basically unless the press decide to go on a health & safety campaign against Disney there isn't any reason why these shouldn't resume. The system failed once after years with no problems. Design a new fail safe mechanism to stop whatever caused the error in the program to close the loop-hole. Publicly reaffirm the safety and reopen the front cabin once the news has died down a bit.

[Polynesian Dweller]

Publicly reaffirm the safety and reopen the front cabin once the news has died down a bit.

Well, the real players in this will likely be the NTSB with its final report and Disney's insurers. If the NTSB questions the safety it will be hard for the insurers to be willing to accept the risk of passengers in the front. Insurers play a very large behind the scene roles in many companies' operations.

Disney really did dodge a huge bullet this time. If the family that was on board were in the front at the time and also killed the ramifications would have been immense.

The correct thing to do was to suspend access to the front cabin until the accident is fully understood (all reports are in).

[Giggy]

I agree with you, it would be irresponsible to carry on as normal until the reports are in. I wouldn't expect the reports to find passengers riding up front any more dangerous than many other approved activities however.

Distraction should not be a relavent issue as even if the driver did get distracted and failed to notice he was getting too close to the monorail in front the safety system should kick in. If the two trains become less than two blocks apart the MAPO light turns from green to amber, notifying the driver that he must stop before moving onto the next block to ensure an adequate distance is resumed. If the back train continues onto the next block so that the two trains are on the same block the MAPO light will turn red and an emergency stop will happen automatically. Not only does this system prevent a crash by human error alone it will record a red MAPO light as a safety demerit against the driver.Safety demerits are recorded to ensure that the drivers emplyed are safe and responsible.

Disney take safety of guests and employees very seriously. This was a tragic accident but it was a freak accident.

[spinnerf]

Also from a legal point of view if they are saying it is too dangerous for guests what does it say that they'd put drivers there?

The question should be if its too dangerous for drivers, what does it say that they would put guests there? Especially from an insurance viewpoint. Are we not led to believe that nearly every airline crash is "freak"? If a train has a head on collision or is rear ended and there are fatalities, where do you think they would be? I would guess in the front car with the driver, Im sure Disneys insurance companies feel the same way. Ultimately its always up to the insurers, not Disney. Why take the risk?

[Giggy]

I'm not saying it's too dangerous for anyone, however if you say it is too dangerous to put a guest in that situation then you couldn't justify the driver being there either.

My point is any permenant restriction on guests riding up front is an over-reaction. A castmember has died and that should not be overlooked, those who knew them have my sympathy. However, the monorail has been running since 1971 and this is the first fatality there has been in those 38 years. That isn't the track record of a dangerous ride and I am sure there are theme park rides (in Disney and/or elsewhere) with worse records.

I'm not saying there is no chance of this restriction being permenant, just no logical reason why it should be. Of course if the press latch on or health & safety/the insurers kick up a fuss then Disney's hands would be tied. Whether that happens is anyone's guess.

[Polynesian Dweller]

I'm not saying there is no chance of this restriction being permenant, just no logical reason why it should be. Of course if the press latch on or health & safety/the insurers kick up a fuss then Disney's hands would be tied. Whether that happens is anyone's guess.

The logic used will be whatever is learned from the investigations that are underway. The investigations may uncover things that hadn't been thought of before or seen as a hazard. Investigations have a way of uncovering things that haven't been known or understood previously. That's why we have them. So until we know the results of the investigations we have no way of knowing whether there is "no logical reason" or not.

We don't know at this point what the chain of events were so any 'logic' we try to put on the situation this point is really pointless. At some point the accident will be understood better and logical decisions can be made.

The decisions aren't likely to hinge heavily on any press reaction (if at all) but rather on analysis of the risks involved once they are better understood based on the investigation results.

[Giggy]

Yes they are right to have an investigation. However I find it pretty unlikely an investigation would find that a guest riding up front in the monorail makes it more likely to crash, especially given the one time it did crash in 38 years was when there wasn't a guest riding up front.

A report basically saying a monorail can crash would be meaningless in that sense. It's the equivalent of saying a rollercoaster could crash, a ferry could sink, the skilift at Blizzard beach could have it's cable snap or the parking lot tram could run someone over. If they find something specific then fair enough, if not then any such restriction would be of no benefit.