Portugal mourns after deadly streetcar accident : NPR
On Wednesday, emergency teams work on the site of an electric tram derailed in Lisbon, Portugal.
Armando Franca / AP
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Armando Franca / AP
Lisbone, Portugal – Portugal observed a national day of mourning on Thursday, one day after a famous Lisbon tramway derailed and killed 15 people in the worst accident in the capital of recent history.
The authorities have not given any information on the people killed or the 23 who, according to the police, were injured in the accident, increasing the initial toll of the victims. The 19th century tramway is one of the great tourist attractions of Lisbon and is generally filled with foreigners at that time of the year for its short and picturesque trip from top to one of the steep hills of the city.
Teams of pathologists from the National Forensics Institute, reinforced by colleagues from three other Portuguese cities, worked overnight on autopsies, officials said. The injured were admitted to several hospitals in the Lisbon region.
The crumpled wreck of the tram was still on the road to the city center where she crashed Thursday, completed by the police. Accident investigators were due to the scene. Officials refused to speculate that a defective brake or a broken cable may have caused the accident.
The yellow and white tram, known as Elemador Da Gloria, was lying on the side on the narrow road on which it travels, its sides and the crumpled top. He crashed into a building where the road leans, leaving parts of the vehicle mainly in crushed metal.
“He struck the building with brutal force and collapsed like a cardboard box,” said Teresa d’Avó to Portuguese TV channel SIC. She described the tram as out of control and seeming not to brake, and said that she watched passers -by rushing in the middle of Avenida da Liberdade, or Freedom Avenue, the main way of the city.
The accident occurred at the start of the evening rush hour, around 6 p.m. local time. Emergency officials said all the victims had been removed from the wreck in just over two hours.
The tram, technically called funicular, is operated by steel cables and can transport more than 40 people, seated and standing. It is also commonly used by Lisbon residents.
The service, inaugurated in 1885, rises and descended a few hundred meters (yards) of a hill on a curved road without traffic in tandem with a opposite.
The Lisbon municipal council interrupted the operations of three other famous funicular trams of the city while immediate inspections were carried out.
The Elevador Da Gloria is classified as a national monument.
Lisbon welcomed around 8.5 million tourists last year, and long lines of people are generally formed for brief journeys on the popular tramway.
Carris, the company that operates the tram, said that the planned interview had been carried out. He offered his deepest condolences to the victims and their families in a social media position, and promised that any reasonable diligence would be taken to find the causes of the accident.
Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa offered his condolences to affected families, and the mayor of Lisbon Carlos Moedas said that the city was in mourning. “It is a tragedy of the same thing that we have never seen,” said Moedas.
The government of Portugal announced that a national mourning day is observed on Thursday.
“A tragic accident … caused the irreparable loss of human life, which has mourned their families and has dismayed the whole country,” he said in a statement.
