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Portuguese accident investigators are to release a preliminary report into the funicular railway crash that killed 16 people and injured 21 others on Wednesday evening.
The accident, described by Portugal’s prime minister, Luís Montenegro, as “one of the biggest tragedies in our recent history”, happened shortly after 6pm when one of the Elevador da Glória’s two streetcars derailed and hurtled down a hill and into a building in the centre of Lisbon.
The wreckage of the vehicle was removed from the scene on Thursday night and taken by police for examination as a day of national mourning ended.
The government’s office for air and rail accident investigations said it had concluded its analysis of the wreckage and would issue an initial technical report on Friday. The chief police investigator, Nelson Oliveira, said a preliminary police report, which would have a broader scope, was expected within 45 days.
Investigators have not found any evidence of sabotage, leaving mechanical failures or maintenance issues among the possible causes.
The Glória line carries about 3 million people, tourists and residents, annually. Its two cars, each capable of carrying about 40 people, are attached to opposite ends of a haulage cable, with traction provided by electric motors on the cars.
On Thursday, the leader of the Fectrans union, Manuel Leal, told a local television station that workers had complained that problems with the tension of the cable that hauls the carriages had made braking difficult, but added it was too early to say if that had caused the crash.
Carris, the municipal public transport company that operates the service, said “all maintenance protocols” had been carried out, including monthly and weekly service programmes and daily inspections.
The president of Carris, Pedro de Brito Bogas, said the streetcar, which had been in service since 1914, underwent a scheduled full-maintenance programme last year and the company conducted a 30-minute visual inspection of it every day.
At a news conference, he said the streetcar had last been inspected nine hours before the derailment, but did not detail the visual inspection, nor specify when questioned whether all the cables had been tested.
Hundreds of people, including the prime minister, Portugal’s president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and Lisbon’s mayor, Carlos Moedas, attended a solemn mass at Lisbon’s church of Saint Dominic on Thursday evening.
Officials have confirmed that the dead include five Portuguese people, two Koreans, a Swiss national and a French national.
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Luís Neves, the head of the national investigative police, has said there was a “high degree of probability” that other victims included two Canadians, a Ukrainian, a US citizen and a German citizen.
The injured include Spanish, Israeli, Portuguese, Brazilian, Italian and French citizens, according to the executive director of Portugal’s national health service, Álvaro Santos Almeida. Five people remained in serious condition on Friday morning.
On Thursday afternoon, the prime minister called the crash a “tragic accident that transcends borders and a pain that knows no nationality”, and promised a quick investigation to establish what had gone wrong.
“The competent authorities will swiftly carry out the necessary investigations to determine the cause of this tragic accident,” he said. “We will determine all responsibilities with a sense of respect for all those who suffered and are suffering the effects of this accident.”
Moedas said there were no words to describe the pain the city was feeling. “We’re gathering all the information to determine who is responsible. The city needs answers,” said Lisbon’s mayor.
Associated Press contributed to this report
