As Lisbon wakes up to a day in which the identities of the dead and injured in yesterday’s funicular tragedy are expected to be announced, the operations of all other similar equipment in the city have been suspended, so that inspections can take place.
Mayor Carlos Moedas announced the decision last night, from behind the security barriers as the number of dead and injured continued to rise.
This morning the ‘final count’ seems to have been settled at 17 dead (among them tourists and Portuguese, including the driver of the funicular), 21 injured, six of them seriously. This may change, however (particularly as there are many ‘anecdotal stories’ going around, difficult still to corroborate). What is becoming clear are the number of nationalities involved: SIC today has mentioned “victims of at least 10 nationalities”.
A note sent out to state news agency Lusa refers to the instruction given to “municipal companies to immediately suspend the operations of funiculars in the city – Bica and Lavra and the Graça Funicular, to allow for technical inspections”.
This decision tends to lend some weight to the criticisms of syndicate leader Manuel Leal yesterday who described “successive complaints” about the quality of maintenance in recent years.
The funicular that crashed in appalling circumstances last night was one that annually transports as many as three million people up the steep 265-metre hill from Praça dos Restauradores to the Bairro Alto.
Reports have given a little of the history of these antiquated means of transport that give Lisbon a particular stamp of authenticity: they were created by Portuguese engineer Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard.
The perpendicular Lavra ‘lift’ (not really a funicular) connects Câmara Pestana and Largo da Anunciada, while a similar lift in Bica connects Rua da São Pedro to the Largo do Calhariz.
The Graça funicular runs a connection between Martim Moniz and Largo da Graça.
All these means of passenger transport will remain inactive until the results of the technical inspection.
City hospitals treating the injured are meantime giving periodic updates, and ‘reinforcing blood stocks’.
The European Parliament is flying its flags at half mast today (as are all the municipalities of the country), in memory of the victims. This tragedy is being followed by news media throughout the world.
As morning news bulletins cover this story, SIC has mentioned the fact that maintenance had been ‘held up’ this year by the fact that the estimate for the work was being queried (for being considered too high). More on this in text to follow.
source: SIC Notícias
