Monorail Crash at The World
Sunday was a sad day at Walt Disney World. In the early hours of the morning, Disney experienced its first fatal monorail related accident when two monorails collided, killing one driver.
Almost everyone who visits the parks rides the monorail at one time or another, so I could certainly see this causing a panic, and it seems that Disney was expecting that – the monorails are closed right now and Disney is pushing their transportation alternatives. (Not to mention there must be some repair to do to the line and the trains.)
This is a sad, sad event. Most guests, myself included, travel to Disney under the assumption that the methods of transportation are safe, and until this event, the monorail’s record has remained unscathed as far as accidents go. Probably the worst in all of this is the grief that will envelop the family of that young driver whose life was so abruptly ended that night.
I’ll probably still ride the monorail when we go to Disney in a couple of months. Still, I imagine that the monorail could possibly experience a decline in ridership over the next few months in the aftermath of the tragedy. That, or people will flock to it in solidarity. It’s difficult to say how the general public will react.
Either way, I’m pretty sure this wasn’t the kind of publicity Disney was looking for during an economic slowdown. We’ll see how they’re able to spin this in the coming weeks to salvage attendance heading into the value season at the parks.
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