The board of Portuguese urban transport company Carris – which operates buses, trams and cable cars in the – resigned today, two days after the release of a damning report into the causes of the derailment of the iconic Gloria cable car that .
The president of the state-owned company Carris, Pedro Bogas, and the entire board of directors have resigned, Lisbon City Hall announced. Mayor Carlos Moedas was re-elected on October 12, pledging to restore as soon as possible “the credibility of a company of fundamental importance” for the Portuguese capital.
According to the Portuguese Air and Rail Accident Investigation Agency (GPIAAF), which connected the two cable cars. In the preliminary report made public on Monday, it is underlined that the cable did not meet the specifications set by Carris, which had outsourced the maintenance work to a subcontractor.
Although it appears in the records, investigators have gathered evidence suggesting that the tasks do not correspond to those that were actually performed. Pending the final report, they recommended that the Portuguese capital’s three cable cars be shut down to ensure they have braking systems and safety mechanisms to prevent similar incidents in the future.
On September 3, a car of the Gloria cable car derailed and crashed into a building, killing 16 people and injuring around 20 others. The dead were five Portuguese, three British, two South Korean, two Canadian, one French, one Swiss, one American and one Ukrainian.
