ORANGE COUNTY, FL -- Three Walt Disney World employees have been placed on paid leave as part of the investigation into a monorail crash which killed a 21-year-old train operator over the weekend.
A Disney spokeswoman said Thursday that the paid leave is not disciplinary action but part of the investigative process.
The employees are a monorail shop worker, the operator of one of the trains involved in the collision and a transportation manager.
An Orlando TV station reported that those responsible for monitoring the Disney World monorail system were at a restaurant when a crash occurred last Sunday, killing a monorail driver.
A former monorail driver who still has friends at Disney told WFTV that a monorail manager and a central coordinator were taking a break at a nearby Denny's.
A train that collided with another monorail reportedly was supposed to be switched to a different track. WFTV reports that several sources have confirmed that a maintenance worker was left to make the decision.
The National Transportation Safety Board reported Wednesday that no malfunctions have been found with the automatic train stop system, nor with any mechanical parts of the switch. No mechanical problems were found with the two trains that collided Sunday.
The accident killed 21-year-old Austin Wuennenberg.
The NTSB says a pink train was changing tracks when it backed up into a purple train with Wuennenberg at the controls. The agency says it appears Wuennenberg tried to put the train in reverse to avoid the collision.
