3 Employees Suspended In Wake Of Disney Crash - Orlando News Story - WESH Orlando

Walt Disney World has suspended three employees with pay in the wake of Sunday's fatal monorail crash, Disney representative Zoraya Suarez confirmed Thursday.

Suarez said the action against the employees is part of the investigative process and is not necessarily disciplinary.
Disney Monorail

The employees suspended are a monorail shop cast member, the monorail transportation manager on duty and a monorail pilot.

WESH 2 News first reported Wednesday that the monorail manager was off site at a Lake Buena Vista restaurant, 15 minutes away, relaying instructions via two-way radio when the crash happened. It is unknown if that person was the one suspended.

A former monorail driver to whom WESH 2 News talked said, despite the manager not being on site, the two monorail pilots involved and another person equipped with a manual kill switch still should have known that the trains were on a collision course.

A report released Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board said that the victim, 21-year-old Austin Wuennenberg, stopped his train and tried to back up in an apparent attempt to avoid the train backing up toward him.