ORLANDO, Fla. — Federal investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released new documents Monday in the deadly Disney monorail crash last summer.
DOCUMENTS: Mechanical Supervisor | Post Crash Statement
The documents include excerpts from the monorail operational manual and maintenance rules. But there's also a first-person account from monorail manager David Gilmore, the man in the report issuing commands when the accident occurred.
On July 4, 2009, Gilmore was managing switching monorail command duties via hand-held radio. A lawsuit says he was grabbing dinner at Perkins when the crash happened. However, he never said in the report he was at Perkins.
"I received a call and Bob let me know that he was feeling very sick and needed to go home. I told him to go home and I would perform the duties of central," Gilmore stated in the report.
A lawsuit filed by the family of Austin Wuennenberg alleges Gilmore was off-site while ordering around the train. Wuennenberg died in the crash.
In his statement, Gilmore does say he took over the switching duties, saying, "I then called shop (Mike was running the panel at the time) and gave him the instruction 'clear to move switch beams eight and nine to the spurline with power' he repeated these instructions back to me."
Gilmore then gave an order for one of the trains to reverse. But soon after, something went wrong.
"Then I noticed that a radio was keyed on the network about two minutes later." he wrote. "Allan said there had been an accident. When I arrived on scene pink cab six was into purple cab one."
Despite not saying if he was off property while giving orders, Gilmore mentions in his report that employees read back orders over the radio after he gave them.
"Also right after Allan told me what had happened above, I called shop and asked Mike, 'Were switch beams 8 and 9 on the spurline?' He first said yes then after a long pause he said they were still on the mainline," Gilmore wrote.
Monorail pilot Austin Wuennenberg was killed in that crash. His mother has recently filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Disney claiming that the company could have prevented his death.
Previous Stories: September 30, 2010: Monorail Pilot's Family Fights Disney In Court September 2, 2010: Mother: Monorail Death Was Preventable
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