College of Charleston instructor among victims killed in Lisbon funicular crash
The college of Charleston confirmed on Friday that one of his instructors was one of the 16 people killed in the accident of the popular Funicular Railway in Lisbon on Wednesday, which shocked Portugal and led to sharp questions about the cause of the accident.
Heather Hall, member of the Faculty of the Teacher Training Department, was the only American killed in the accident, who also injured 21. Among the dead, five Portuguese citizens, two South Koreans, a Swiss, three British citizens, two Canadians, a French and a Ukrainian, according to Portuguese police.
Hall had been in Lisbon to speak at a conference, said Fran Welch, the dean of the School of Education, in a press release.
“This is a tragic loss for all of us,” said Welch. “As an ancient former college (’97) and a dynamic instructor with a specialization is a special education, she shared her love to travel with her students.”
The declaration noted that Hall had been a fulbright scholarship holder in Ghana and had taken his students during trips abroad to Italy.
Welch added: “His energy, his kindness and his centered on the student will be deeply missed.”
Hall’s passion for travel is highlighted on her Facebook page that shows photos of her in Havana, Venice and Colosseum in Rome.
The wreck of the funicular, known as Elevador Da Glória, was authorized during the night and put into police custody.
Alexandre Rodrigues, commander of the Lisbon firefighters, told journalists on Wednesday that the authorities had been alerted to the derailment at 6:01 p.m. local time (12:01 p.m.) and arrived in the three minutes. The funicular has derailed and crashed into a building, he said.
Becky Britton, from Minnesota, was on vacation in the city with her husband when she passed in front of the premises and saw what she described as a carnage.
“I feel sad, and when you are here, it’s real. If that happened to us, our families, we would have been informed and it is simply devastating, “she said.
Emergency officials said all the victims had been removed from the wreck in just over two hours.
Classified as a national monument, the Elevador Da Glória Funicular Connected Restaurant Square at the Jardim of São Pedro de Alcântara, a popular garden in the Bairro Alto district.
The service, which was inaugurated in 1885, rises and descended a few hundred meters of a hill on a curved road without traffic in tandem with a opposite direction. It is a popular attraction with tourists from Lisbon, and long lines of people are generally formed for brief rides.
Exploded by steel cables, it can transport more than 40 people, seated and standing, and it is also commonly used by Lisbon residents.
The government’s office for air and railway surveys should publish a preliminary technical report on the accident on Saturday.
