http://www.france24.com/en/20130103-fou ... n-accident

This is something that shouldn't have happened, period.

It's hard to say what exactly happened. Are Janney type couplers used? If they're standard coupler draft gears, they wouldn't use a "bolt." And I doubt a coupler knuckle would have snapped. What "bolt" could have broken?

It appears that they use a form of link and pin coupler.

http://www.severn-lamb.com/jupiter.asp
Go to the photo tab, there is a pic of the end of one of their coaches on the lower left side.

They have air brakes (I assume straight air) so there is no emergency stop cabablity, I couldn't make out in the pics I've looked at to see if they use safety chains like at Anaheim.

I was gonna say, aren't there safety chains for such an event?

Doesn't look like there are safety chains in the photos from Bruce. But even then, I suppose there could be enough slack to have the cars slam together once the engine starts slowing down.

EDIT--now that I think of it, if there were safety chains, the train brake line might still have remained connected, applying brakes to the trailing cars as well.

It sounds like the person who wrote this article knew nothing about trains

Well, they're journalists--not railroaders. Of course, their job is to ask the right questions...

Keep in mind, it's also a French news site, so terminology is slightly different (wagon:car, driver:engineer, smokestack/stack:chimney, etc.) but most importantly the story was conveyed and I was able to understand, railroad jargon aside.

It's rare for any sort of accident to happen on a Disney railroad

Rare though they may be, they still occur.