For the PS councilors at the Lisbon City Council there is no doubt: the flaws highlighted by the preliminary report of the Office for the Prevention and Investigation of Aircraft Accidents and Railway Accidents (GPIAAF) on the accident at the Elevador da Glória are “very serious” and they consider that “the leadership of Carris has lost the conditions to continue in office”.
In a statement, the socialists state that “the conclusions of the report” about the accident on September 3rd (which killed 16 people) “disprove the version initially presented by Carris”.
This “after the company had publicly guaranteed that all maintenance procedures had been complied with”. According to the report released on Monday, there were failures and omissions in the maintenance of the Glória lift, saying that there is, among others, “evidence that maintenance tasks recorded as completed do not always correspond to the tasks actually carried out”. In view of all this, PS councilors in the Lisbon municipal executive demand “that due responsibilities be assumed, without exceptions or cover-ups”. In the opinion of the socialist councilors, “it is not acceptable for an accident with fatalities and injuries to occur in a public facility and for the consequences to be limited to intermediate sanctions or a mere pass of blame”. Therefore, they consider, “the leadership of Carris lost the conditions to continue in office, given the contradictions and the seriousness of the known conclusions“. And if the “president of the board of directors does not resign, it is up to the president of Lisbon City Council to make that decision”, they argue.
After the GPIAAF report became known, Carlos Moedas, Lisbon mayor, argued that the document “reaffirms that the unfortunate tragedy” resulted from technical and not political causes. To Lusa, the mayor even said that This position goes “against the politicization that some carried out during the electoral campaign”.
For Chega, elected councilor Bruno Mascarenhas said that this report “could never point to political causes” and classified the document as “devastating”. Speaking to the TSF, he stated that is necessary “understand that a set of political responsibilities must be deduced. It is necessary to understand that Carris knew that this cable that broke was not suitable for the function for which it was purchased”.
João Ferreira, from the PCP, goes in the same direction as the PS: Carlos Moedas must take responsibility, under penalty of proving “incapable” of taking the necessary measures. Quoted by Lusa, the communist councilor argues that “there is a political responsibility that must be attributed to those who took the decision to outsource and to all those who, over timeincluding the current mayor, took the decision to extend this external contracting” for the maintenance of these infrastructures. Stressing that only the final report will “clarify” what happened, João Ferreira says that this interim document already exposes “very serious flaws” in the functioning of Carris.
For its part, the Left Bloc (which, until the new executive takes office, will have a councilor) presented a request to demand clarifications and immediate action after the report is known, which reveals, among others, “very serious flaws in the maintenance, supervision and security of the system”. Councilor Beatriz Gomes Dias also accuses Carlos Moedas of having a “lack of transparency” by ignoring warnings from the Carris workers’ committee and not having provided “clarifications” at the municipal meeting on the matter, held the day after the municipal elections.
What does the report say?
Maintenance failures: The GPIAAF report states that there is “evidence that maintenance tasks recorded as completed do not always correspond to the tasks actually carried out, as well as that safety-critical tasks are carried out in a non-standardized way, with disparate execution and validation parameters”. Furthermore, “the inspections scheduled for the day of the accident and antecedents are recorded as carried out and the service provider’s personnel were present, but the evidence does not support the time period indicated in the worksheets for their execution”.
Uncertified cable: The document also states that the traction/balance cable “did not comply with CCFL certification [Carris] for use in the Ascensor da Glória”, nor was it certified for “use in installations for the transport of people”, nor was it “suitable for being installed with swivels at its ends, as is the system in the Ascensor da Glória (and in the Ascensor da Lavra)”.
Stopped elevators: As a recommendation, the GPIAAF suggests that Carris “not reactivate the lifts” without a “reassessment carried out by an entity specializing in funiculars”.