ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The attorney for the family of the monorail pilot killed in a crash at Disney World fought in court Thursday to get the theme park to hand over confidential records.
Austin Wuennenberg was killed after the Disney monorail he was piloting was struck by another monorail. Wuennenberg's family is suing Disney and was in court Thursday.
Disney tried to keep pictures of the monorail under wraps along with other documents. But his family's attorney wants many more documents. Disney's attorneys claim many of his requests are simply too broad.
A bickering match took center stage inside an Orange County courtroom.
"Let's use our time usefully other than throwing stones at each other," said Judge Robert Evans, Orange County.
The attorney representing Wuennenberg's family asked Disney's attorneys to hand over documents and pictures in the case because he said they were withholding some of them.
"I'm not asking for every picture ever taken of the monorail in the history of the world," said Brian Denney, Wuennenberg family attorney.
Denney felt like he was being stonewalled, so both sides met with Judge Robert Evans who sorted through the more than 20 requests by Denney.
Denney wanted the names of those who saw the aftermath of the crash in July of 2009, surveillance video three hours before and after the crash, and a list of everyone who worked on the monorail in the last five years.
"We've given him everyone working that day," Disney attorney Janet Hickson said.
The judge called that a monumental task and narrowed that request to just the people working that night.
Denney also wanted to know what procedures were supposed to be followed at the time of the crash. There are allegations that a manager operating the trains was off-site the night of the crash.
"This is the issue: there was a manager at a Perkins restaurant masquerading like he was in the tower," Denney said.
At one point, the judge told Disney's attorneys to bring on extra people if they need help going through documents related to the case.
It is not known how much the victim's family is requesting in damages from Disney.