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Disney World Monorail Crash Kills Driver

By Drew Nelles,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 5, 2009 4:14 PM CDT

Two Disney World monorail trains collided early this morning in Orlando, Fla., leaving one train operator dead, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Twenty-one-year-old Austin Wuennenberg died at the scene of the crash and another employee was taken to hospital with minor injuries. "I heard it happened at 2 a.m.," one park guest said. "Just must have been due to tiredness."

A former monorail driver says the trains are equipped with a safety system that automatically brakes when vehicles come too close together. This is the first fatal crash on Disney World’s monorail system; California’s Disneyland has seen one death on its train system. "Our heart goes out to the cast member and the family," a Disney World spokesman says. The park is open today with the monorail turned off.
(More crash stories.)

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