The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that about 50 people were aboard buses outside the Contemporary Resort when two buses collided this afternoon. No one seems to be seriously injured, but about a dozen guests were treated for minor injuries. Neither driver was hurt. _____________________________
They do seem to be having their share of incidents lately. ; I am hoping this is not indicative of budget cutbacks in the areas of safety oversight and maintenance, lack of proper training or overworking their employees( I heard some CM rumblings that about this). On our recent trip, in addition to the monorail accident, there were several attractions that had technical issues. ; Haunted Mansion, Test Track, Kali River Rapids, Indiana Jones and Spaceship Earth all had various problems. ; Add to these the fire incident at the Epcot fountains and you have to wonder what is going on. ; Hopefully it is all just a series of unfortunate events.
I have a feeling at least with regards to this bus accident that they are the unfortunate victims at the moment of a large magnifying glass and extra scrutiny because of the Monorail accident. ; I dare say small-time bus incidents like this have happened several times in the past (I know I've been ON a bus that struck a car in front of Wilderness Lodge's entrance road), but never were widely reported outside the Disney and Orlando area news. ; But because of their first death on the Monorail, the press is scouring any and all little news blurbs about Disney, and jumping on stories like this that otherwise would have been no more than a page 4 blurb in the local newspaper. As for the technical issues...I don't know. ; Maybe fluky, maybe a recent rash, maybe budget cuts...unknown. ; I haven't noticed anything too run down or broken down in general when I was there in June...I know some of the more 'action' rides like Test Track, Indy, and Everest have had fairly regular technical issues and glitches over the years...which might just be part and parcel of running such high-tech rides.
Probably because Eisner's Empire was harder to reach the outlying star systems - the regional governors had more control over the East Coast since the Empire ruled from Burbank and would focus more on the park they could drive to. ; Focus on meaning look at the financials. Disneyland went through this between the mid 90s to just a few years ago; from the fatal Columbia accident to more recently the fatal BTMRR accident, the latter being the end result of the reduced maintenance that was part of the Empire's 3 step plan for the Company; however it wasn't just maintenance, it was also a focus on reducing costs by reducing staff numbers and training. ; Disneyland is back on the right track now, but as for these two accidents at WDW, they appear to be 100% human error that perhaps could have been avoided with no other changes to anything.
Jeez, I really have been living under a rock. ; Thanks Roger for the update! ; Glad to hear that nothing is wrong with the fountain and no one was severely harmed in the bus accident.
