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.
A makeshift memorial next to the site where the streetcar derailed and crashed.Credit: AP
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.
“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.
At least 16 people were killed and 22 injured in the crash.Credit: Getty Images
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.”
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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.
“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.
Carris has said that cable breakage may not be the cause of the disaster.Credit: Getty Images
“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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