Computer Blamed for Disneyland Train Wreck

A Disneyland roller coaster-type train that plowed into a parked train Sunday, injuring nine people, was sent down the wrong track because of a computer mistake, a park spokesman said Monday.

The electronically operated Thunder Mountain Railroad train struck an out-of-service train at about 5 p.m., said Bob Roth, director of Disneyland’s publicity department.

The injured, including one child, suffered mostly bruises when the front car of the open-air train derailed, tipped sideways and sent passengers into the train’s horizontal safety railings, Roth said.

7 Taken to Hospital

All nine were treated by nurses at the Magic Kingdom’s first aid post, Roth said. Seven were driven in Disneyland vans to Western Medical Center in Anaheim, where they were treated and released, Roth said. He said two other train passengers, the child and one adult, ventured back into the park from the first aid center. It was not necessary to summon Anaheim Fire Department paramedics, Roth said.

Just minutes before the crash, an operator had shut down the ride manually as a safety precaution because a man in line near the boarding area had been jostled onto the tracks, Roth said.

He said one of two six-car trains running Sunday already had returned to the ride station; the train that crashed was pulling in to the station at a speed of 3 to 5 m.p.h.

Another Disneyland spokesman, Al Flores, said the computer didn’t know a train already was on that track. Park officials are investigating whether the ride operator had switched the system back to the computer after shutting it off manually, Flores said.

The Frontierland ride dips and winds through mountains, caves and several “frontiers,” reaching a maximum speed of 20 m.p.h. Roth said. He said the trains move “pretty fast,” with three inclines and three drops. “But it’s relatively tame for a roller-coaster ride,” he said.

Electronic Switching

Tracks flank both sides of the station, north and south, Roth said, and trains are switched electronically to one or the other.

Due to a “mechanical mistake,” Roth said, the last train was switched to the north track unloading area, where it rear-ended the empty coach.

“A total of nine people complained of bruises and soreness . . . we had some bruises on some elbows, knees and heads,” Roth said. He said he could not locate the names of the injured passengers.

The south side of the ride was reopened by 9 p.m., he added.

The derailment marked the first time passengers have been injured on the Thunder Mountain Railroad since it opened in the fall of 1979, Roth said.