Miguel A. Lopes / Lusa
There is no support fund for victims: “We shouldn’t save insurance companies money. That’s what was needed, it’s their duty.”
The opposition councilors in the Lisbon Chamber considered that the extraordinary meeting this Monday about the accident with “very little” providing clarifications, while the PSD/CDS-PP leadership highlighted the tranquility, “far from electoral exploitation”.
“This meeting took place in a very peaceful environment […] It is really the tone and tone that is necessary to evaluate a tragedy of this scale, far from electoral profiteering and partisanship of this issue. It takes calm. Indeed, the tragedy remains a matter for us to understand. What happened could not have happened, but now we are going to commit ourselves to trying to understand what happened and this commitment is total, in an already calmer context”, stated the vice-president of the municipality, Filipe Anacoreta Correia (CDS-PP).
The vice-president of Lisbon City Council was speaking at the end of an extraordinary meeting to update information about the accident with the Glória elevator, held at the request of the opposition, which wanted it to be held on September 25th.
However, the president of the municipal executive, Carlos Moedas (PSD), scheduled it for this Monday, the day after the local elections, “so as not to partisan an issue that must deserve all technical clarifications”.
Defending a stance of clarification and total transparency regarding the accident, PS councilor Pedro Anastácio criticized the PSD/CDS-PP leadership, as well as Carris, for “a cork postureof non-disclosure of information”, considering that “this is negative, because it hinders what is the reestablishment of the city, of the city’s trust in Carris’ public transport infrastructures”.
Regarding the new data in the context of the Glória elevator, including those that occurred before the tragedy of September 3rd, but that were not duly recorded by Carris, the vice-president of the Chamber assured that “no one wanted to entrust them or not bring them to the public”, explaining that these episodes were due to human error and “have no parallel” with the scale of the accident on September 3rd, “which refers to structural issues regarding the safety of elevators themselves”.
“On the part of Carris and the Chamber, there is a total commitment to clarify everything that has to do with it and to help us understand what happened. There is no one defending or worried about covering up or not bringing the information, but in a very difficult management, which is a management resulting from an accident that left us all very disturbed, eventually there could be communication failures”, explained Anacoreta Correia, reinforcing that the total commitment is to understand what happened “so that it doesn’t happen again”.
For the socialist Pedro Anastácio, the duty of the Lisbon Chamber “was kill this controversy immediately“, with “a complete clarification of this”.
“We regret that this was not an option”, pointed out the PS councilor.
As for the alerts regarding the operation of the elevator, Pedro Anastácio said that the information transmitted was that they were “generic regarding maintenance, they were never specific regarding the Glória elevator”.
“Many aspects still need to be clarified, namely understanding what happened and what failed”, insisted the socialist, awaiting the final report on the accident to understand what failed, who failed and who is responsible.
PCP councilor Ana Jara said that “this meeting, in a way, had no effect“, indicating that “no full clarification was given” regarding the implementation of the communist proposal to assess the state of conservation of the elevators, including the outsourcing of maintenance, as well as regarding the study of the tourist load.
From Citizens for Lisbon (elected by the PS/Livre coalition), Paula Marques highlighted that “there were no major clarifications”, noting that several questions were not answered by PSD/CDS-PP, particularly regarding the responsibility that Carris has in monitoring the maintenance company.
Livre councilor Carlos Teixeira, replacing Rui Tavares, also spoke out dissatisfied with clarifications, particularly regarding “issues regarding the past, present and future of this entire situation”, highlighting the process of modernizing elevators.
No support fund
The Lisbon Chamber The municipal fund to support victims has not yet been set up of the accident with the Glória elevator, because at the moment the expenses are being borne by insurance companies, said the vice-president of the municipality.
“The fund is to cover the expenses of people who were victimized by the accident and what was said unequivocally by the Mayor, and also by me, is that there is full availability to set up the fund for necessary expenses”, stated Filipe Anacoreta Correia (CDS-PP), indicating that, at this moment, this need is not yet verified, since the insurance companies are covering all the expenses.
PS councilor Pedro Anastácio highlighted the priority of ensuring support for victims and their families.
“What we want is guarantees that there is this total commitment to supporting the victims and their families and what we were told is that this fund has not progressed, and the desire to implement it is not denied. What was said is that, until now, the insurance company has assumed the payment of all expenses”, declared the socialist, considering it “positive” that the support is reaching the affected people.
The vice-president of the Chamber reinforced that the insurance companies have demonstrated “a availability total and great commitment” to respond to the victims, stating that “there is no economic, financial or contractual consideration here on the part of the insurers” and that the main insurer, Fidelidade, has assumed responsibility.
The CDS-PP mayor also highlighted that, so far, insurance companies are committed to ensuring the payment of all expenses and to doing so “as quickly as possible”, insisting that there is currently no need for the municipality to create a support fund.
“We should not save insurers money. That’s what was missing, it’s their duty correspond to these needs”, he highlighted.
President Carlos Moedas (PSD) was also at the meeting but did not make statements to journalists.
The Glória elevator, managed by the municipal company Carris, occurred on September 3 and caused 16 deaths and two dozen injuries, including Portuguese and foreigners of various nationalities.
