OSHA Reduces Fine Against Disney In Deadly Crash

A fine leveled against Walt Disney World for safety violations uncovered after the death of an employee in a monorail accident last summer has been reduced.

Last December Walt Disney World was fined $44,000 for safety breaches that reportedly contributed to the July 5 death of 21-year-old Austin Wuennenberg, as well as other workplace violations.

On Friday, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration agreed to a settlement with Disney and reduced the fine 20 percent to $35,200.

A Disney spokeswoman said the resort worked with OSHA to address any concerns but declined to comment further.

Under the agreement, Disney says it will correct all four safety violations cited by OSHA.

During the course of their investigation federal safety workers determined that the fatal accident occurred after employee mistakenly told others he had activated a track switch.

The employee was working in the monorail’s maintenance bay when a central coordinator overseeing all of Disney’s trains allegedly told him via radio to activate a switch on Disney’s Epcot loop for a train that was waiting to transfer off the track and onto a spur so it could go out of service for the night.

The employee in question has told investigators he thought he activated the switch and told the coordinator it had been done. However, there has been no evidence of a mechanical malfunction, and the switch never moved.

The track did not realign with the spur, so when the coordinator had the waiting train reverse direction and cross the switch, it backed down the Epcot line and collided with another train, killing Wuennenberg.

Still, the investigators say the maintenance worker’s mistake was not the only contributing factor to the first fatal accident in the 38 year’s Disney World has run the monorail system.

For example, an employee working as the central coordinator that night reportedly became sick and asked an on-duty manager for permission to go home. The manager approved the request and had another employee stand in. The accident occurred before the fill-in employee had taken over.

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