The accident of the funicular Of Gloria in Lisbon It was caused by the breakdown of a steel cable: the preliminary report published by the Gpiaafthe National Office for prevention and investigations on air and railway accidents. Following this rupture, the safety system would have automatically interrupted the electric current and operated the brakes, but the procedure was not enough to avoid the derailment of theElevador da Glóriawhich took place after about 50 seconds from the departure and a speed of 60 km/h.
The hypothesis of breaking a cable had already emerged immediately after the accident, which caused the death of 16 people (of which 11 foreign tourists) and over 20 injured. The report, however, does not clarify everything The reasons for this break, considering that the maintenance had been carried out regularly: however, it is specified how, in their current configuration, the braking system emergency had no one sufficient ability To stop the in motion cabins without their masses being balanced mutually by the connection cable. For this reason, the activation of the pneumatic brake and handbrake it would not have been enough to block the downhill wagon.
The dynamics of the accident reconstructed in the preliminary report
According to the reconstruction of the events provided in the preliminary report, the two cabins of the funicular have started their trip to About 18:03after the normal coordination procedures between the respective brakes. After traveling just under Six metersthe two cabins suddenly lost the balance strength provided by the cable that connected them.
At that point, cabin number 2 suddenly reversed the march, stopping about 10 meters ahead “due to its partial excursion beyond the end of the track”. Cabin number 1, however, remained at the top of the Calçada da Glóriacontinued his descent, increasing speed. The braking of the cabin immediately opened the pneumatic brake and the handbrake to try to arrest the movement, but this emergency procedure was not a positive result, with the cabin it has continued to accelerate along the slope.
About 170 meters after the start of his journey and less than 50 seconds from the start, the vehicle is derailed due to its speed, overturning to the left in the direction of travel e bump laterally against the wall of a building, and then crash frontally against a light pole at an estimated speed of 60 km/h.
Because the cable that united the two vagons of the funicular was broken
While confirming the breakdown of the cable as the cause of the derailment, the preliminary report has not yet clarified the reasons for this break. There periodic maintenancein fact, had been held regularly: the same morning of the accident, a programmed visual inspection had been carried out, which had not detected anomalies in the cables or braking systems of the vehicles.
There Estimated duration of the cable, Moreover, it is of 600 days: the last replacement had been made 337 days before of the accident and, consequently, another 263 days were missing until the next. As also confirmed by the preliminary investigations, this type of cable (composed of 36 steel wires with a fiber core, with a total diameter of 32 mm and a approximate breakage load of about 68 tons) had been used for the functioning of the funicular during the last six years.
The first investigations also confirmed the activation of the pneumatic brake and the manual of the number 1 cabin: nevertheless, it was noted that, in the current configuration, «i brakes do not have enough capacity To stop the cabins in motion without that their masses are mutually balanced by connection cable». For this reason, therefore, the emergency braking system may not have worked adequately.
To better understand the reasons behind the break, it will therefore be necessary to wait for the second preliminary report, which will be published in the next 45 days, while within a year from the accident the authorities will have to issue the final final report. In the meantime, an internal investigation has also been opened to the public transport company Carriswhich manages transport in Portugal.
