Driver of Famous Tourist Attraction Tried to Avert Disaster as Streetcar Hurtled Down Hill and Killed 16 in Crash

The fatal incident involving Calçada da Glória's funicular railway, a nationalist monument successful Lisbon, Portugal, was caused by a faulty ligament successful nan vehicle, and nan driver attempted to avert nan fatal clang that killed 16 people.

"The haulage cablegram connecting nan 2 cabins ruptured wrong compartment no.1’s precocious trolley cablegram swivel, conscionable a fewer centimetres from its socketed termination," a preliminary study from nan Gabinete de Prevenção e Investigação de Acidentes com Aeronaves e de Acidentes Ferroviários (GPIAAF) published connected Monday, Oct. 20 concluded.

The study added that nan haulage cablegram "did not comply pinch nan specifications" established by Portugal's transit authority. The investigation besides identified 5 instances erstwhile nan attraction programme for nan conveyance made usage of “non-existent, inapplicable aliases outdated standards,” nan study said.

The mishap occurred astir 6:04 p.m. section clip connected Sept. 3, according to nan GPIAAF.

The streetcar has been moving successful its existent shape since 1914. This peculiar strategy uses an underground connecting cablegram betwixt 2 rider cabins. The cablegram is attached to nan motortruck of each compartment by a typical trolley, aliases "trambolho" successful Portuguese, according to GPIAAF's report on nan crash, released connected Saturday, Sept. 6.

Glória first opened successful 1885, per CTV News.

On nan time of nan accident, nan conveyance derailed 170 meters, aliases 558 feet past wherever it began, astatine nan commencement of a right-hand curve. "The vehicle, owed to its speed, derailed and began to rotation to nan near successful nan guidance of travel," PEOPLE antecedently reported.

Later, nan compartment "completely mislaid its guidance, colliding laterally pinch its precocious portion against nan wall of nan building connected nan near broadside of nan Calçada," and past "head-on against a streetlight rod and different supporting nan funicular's overhead electrical network, some made of formed iron" and soon "ending its uncontrolled activity against nan area of different building."

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The first collision was estimated to person occurred astatine a velocity of astir 37 mph.

The streetcar work is simply a tourer hotspot, Reuters reported. Among nan dormant are 5 Portuguese, 3 British, 2 South Koreans, 2 Canadians, 1 Swiss, 1 Ukrainian, 1 American and 1 French resident, Portuguese constabulary said successful a release.