Lisbon streetcar company casts doubt on cable-break claim after deadly crash

1 week ago 3

London: The operator of the Lisbon streetcar that crashed, killing at least 16 people and injuring 22 others this week, has cast doubt on a key theory about the disaster, saying it might not have been caused by a cable breakage.

The company that runs the famous funicular, Carris, has launched an investigation into Wednesday’s tragedy after declaring it had increased spending on maintenance and had checked the historic system as usual on the day.

Inspectors from Carris, the operator of the Lisbon funicular, at the crash scene on Thursday.

Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said the crash was “one of the biggest tragedies of our recent past” and ordered a day of mourning, amid investigations by police, prosecutors, transport officials and company staff.

Lisbon’s Civil Protection Agency said on Thursday that the death toll had risen to 17. It later corrected that to 16, citing a duplication of available information.

Among the injured were two Germans, two Spaniards and one person each from France, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Morocco, and Cape Verde, the protection agency said. The injured included a three-year-old child.

The Prosecutor General’s office said coroners had so far identified the bodies of five Portuguese, two South Koreans and one Swiss national, without disclosing further details.

A US citizen was killed in the crash, the State Department said in a statement. Portugal’s judicial police chief, Luis Neves, said there was a “high degree of certainty” that there were also two Canadians, one Ukrainian and one German among the dead, although the identities could not yet be officially confirmed.

A makeshift memorial next to the site where the streetcar derailed and crashed.

Some local media reported that a German family of three had been among the victims. The father had died in the crash while the mother was seriously hurt and their three-year-old child was pulled alive from the wreckage and suffered minor injuries, they reported.

The transport workers’ trade union said that the brake operator on the funicular, André Marques, was among the dead.

The Australian government said it was offering consular assistance to one individual, and expressed its sympathy to those affected. “We are not aware of any Australians who have been killed or seriously injured,” a spokesperson said on Thursday.

The Elevador da Gloria, which has been operating since 1914 and is popular with tourists as well as residents, came off its rails during the busy afternoon rush hour.

The funicular combines the features of a railway and an elevator using a cable to link the open carriages, so the weight of a descending car lifts the other up the steep hills of the city.

The mangled wreckage of a yellow tram-like carriage lay where it had left the track and hit a building, just metres from its twin at the bottom of the steep 265-metre slope. The traction cable linking them had snapped.

Carris chairman Pedro de Brito Bogas insisted on Thursday that spending on maintenance had more than doubled over the past decade and there had been “constant monitoring” by the contractors hired to check the system.

At least 16 people were killed and 22 injured in the crash.

“We’ve had staff, very technically qualified staff, that have 30 and 40 years of working within Carris,” he said, speaking in Portuguese at a televised press conference with an English translator.

“They know these vehicles very well and how they operate. And, clearly, they are really bothered, upset, devastated by this accident.”

Initial reports raised theories about the cause of the crash such as a breakage in the cable or a failure of the brake system.

The Carris chairman countered one of those theories when asked at the press conference about a cable breakage. “That may not be the cause of the disaster,” he said.

The company’s investigation would be released soon, he said, but he declared the maintenance checks had been performed as usual before the crash.

“These inspections are the same ones that have been done for a number of years,” he said.

“These maintenance programs, in the modern age, have never given us any problems whatsoever. They are done consistently and correctly.”

Government officials declined to comment on whether a faulty brake or a snapped cable may have prompted the descending streetcar to careen into a building where the steep road bends.

Carris has said that cable breakage may not be the cause of the disaster.

“The city needs answers,” Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas said in a televised statement, adding that talk of possible causes was “mere speculation”.

One witness said the rail car looked like it had no brakes when it sped down the hill.

“It hit the building with brutal force and fell apart like a cardboard box,” witness Teresa d’Avó told Portuguese television channel SIC.

Lisbon resident Abel Esteves, 75, and his wife and grandson were among 40 passengers in the lower car who saw the carriage plunge towards them before derailing at the last second.

“I told my wife, ‘We’re all going to die here’,” he said. “It picked up a brutal speed, took a slight turn and hit the building with a loud bang.”

Eliane Chaves, a Brazilian who has lived in Lisbon for 20 years, told Reuters that she walked past the funicular every day.

“People say that it was negligence but it was not negligence,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“They supervise it thoroughly. It was an accident, just like a plane or car accident can happen.”

With AP and Reuters

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