The third British victim of the Lisbon funicular crash has been named as Andrew David Kenneth Young, 82, a transport enthusiast from Holyhead. He was among 16 people who died when the Elevador da Glória, a popular tourist attraction, derailed in the centre of the Portuguese capital on Wednesday.
In a statement issued by North Wales Police, his family said Young, known to most as Dave, was raised in Auchterarder, Perthshire, and moved to Holyhead in 1980, where he had a long career as a customs officer. A lifelong transport enthusiast, he enjoyed visiting heritage railways and tramways around the world in retirement. His family noted that his final moments were in pursuit of the hobby which gave him so much happiness.
The other British victims have been named as theatre director Kayleigh Smith, 36, and her partner Will Nelson, 44, a lecturer at Manchester’s Arden School of Theatre. Also among the dead were five Portuguese nationals, two Canadians, two South Koreans, one American, one French, one Swiss and one Ukrainian.
Portugal’s Office for Air and Rail Accident Investigations released its first investigative report into the crash on Saturday, stating that the cabins had travelled not more than about six metres when they suddenly lost the balancing force provided by the cable connecting them. The report indicated that the connecting cable had given way at the attachment point to the cabin at the top of the hill.
Lisbon’s city council has tasked a team of experts with designing a new mechanism to ensure the safety of the Glória funicular railway. The council’s vice-president, Filipe Anacoreta Correia, said maximum security must be guaranteed and that the country needed to be reassured over safety before the cable car could reopen. The group includes technicians from the municipal public transport company Carris, which operates the funicular, and experts from universities, Portugal’s engineering regulatory organisation, and national civil engineering laboratory LNEC.
