POLL: Are Disneyland riders worried about Monorail safety?

In a brief man-on-the-street survey of Disney park-goers this week, many seemed unconcerned about the safety of Disneyland’s monorail in light of Sunday morning’s fatal monorail accident that killed a ride operator at the Disney World resort in Florida.

Other’s thought twice about riding the ride, while other still hadn’t even heard of the accident.

Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown told the Register Sunday after the Florida collision that everything was running fine with the single-rail train ride at Disneyland, and operations would continue as normal.

Would you think twice about riding the Disneyland Monorail after the Florida accident?

No way. Disney’s safety record is impeccable, in general — there’s only been a few accidents over the years.
I don’t know, that crash was pretty tragic. Why take your chances?
Heck no, trains freak me out.
I’d still ride it, but I’d definitely think twice.

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“I didn’t hear about the accident,” said Daisy Gonzales, 27, of El Paso, Texas.

She was on her way into the park, walking through the intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Katella Avenue.

“I worry about safety though, I worry about all the rides,” she said, though her family had never been in an accident at the park.

Andrew Carvahlo, 19, a student from Sacramento was heading down Harbor to celebrate his birthday at Disneyland. He hadn’t heard of the accident, but said he didn’t use the monorail anyhow.

“I don’t use it,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve used the monorail since I was 6. I walk everywhere.”

His friend, a Disney fan and pass holder who comes down from Sacramento two or three times a year, said he heard about the Disney World accident on the news and didn’t think twice about the ride safety at Disneyland.

“I heard about it a little bit,” he said. “I don’t know, stuff happens all the time.”

Brown said that all the necessary safety checks were in place and everything was operating normally with the Disneyland Monorail, which just turned 50 years old last month.

“We inspected the monorail this morning, conducted the necessary safety checks as we typically do every day and everything was working properly,” she said Sunday. “We made the decision to continue to operate the Disneyland Resort Monorail today.”

Antoinette Herrera, 23, of San Jose spoke in Downtown Disney as she was getting off the monorail with her baby daughter.

“I actually did hear about it,” she said. “It made me think twice about seat belts on the ride — whether Disney would put seat belts in,” she said. “When I first heard about it, I was sad for the family, their losing a loved one.”

Joseph Yadeta, 46, of British Coloumbia, Canada had already been staying at the Anaheim resort with his wife and three children when the accident happened in Florida. He said his children had ridden the monorail before the accident in Florida happened.

“We went on it and the accident happened after,” he said. “I saw it on the television… we might try to stay away from it.”

The Orlando Sentinal has been following the development of the story closely — click here to read remembrances of Austin Wuennenberg from that newspaper’s Web site.