Mother of Monorail Driver Sues Disney

  • Posted by Van
  • January 25, 2010

The mother of Austin Wueenenberg (21) who was killed in July 2009 after a crash involving two monorails at Walt Disney World, has filed a lawsuit against the Disney company.

Christinie Wuennenberg claims that Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Inc., her son’s employer, was responsible for his death because of negligent conduct.

The NTSB report on the incident stated that the crash happened when a switch failed to change position. According to WESH2 news, a number of negligent activities were at fault resulting in the crash including  Disney knowing the front (and rear) of monorails were unable to protect against a head-on collision; the MAPO safety alert system being disengaged and drivers not occupying the rear of the monorail (an apparent safety procedure that is required when the MAPO system is off-line), and the supervisor in charge of the area was not on-site, rather in a nearby restaurant.

Both OSHA and the National Transportation Safety Board have said that the switch did not happen properly, and that they found no evidence of mechanical error in the equipment involved.

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January 25th, 2010
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Reader Comments

Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Ellie
Posted on:
January 31, 2010 at 7:17 pm

I heard that he was sleeping from my grandma when she was at the parks. Was he sleeping?

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Al
Posted on:
February 4, 2010 at 12:37 pm

No I don’t believe he was sleeping.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
ThatDisneyChic
Posted on:
February 14, 2010 at 9:39 am

What was he doing?

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
ThatDisneyChic
Posted on:
February 14, 2010 at 9:41 am

I’d appreciate it a lot. Thank you!

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
Ellie
Posted on:
February 14, 2010 at 9:43 am

Poor kid. He was young

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
jp
Posted on:
March 9, 2010 at 7:09 pm

While it was a sad event and mistakes were made, what is she really going to get out of suing the Walt Disney Co? No amount of money will bring her son back and whatever she gets won’t truly hurt the company as they just pass the cost off to the consumer.

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
The Boxing Guru
Posted on:
April 20, 2010 at 4:53 pm

She will learn much about what happened, and why it happened through the discovery process of her case. Also, she’ll feel she did EVERYTHING she could.