The College of Charleston confirmed on Friday that one of its instructors was among the 16 people killed in the crash of the popular funicular railway in Lisbon on Wednesday, which shocked Portugal and led to pointed questions about the cause of the accident.
Heather Hall, a member of the faculty of the Department of Teacher Education, was the only American killed in the accident, which also injured 21. Among the dead were five Portuguese citizens, two South Koreans, one Swiss, three British citizens, two Canadians, one French and one Ukrainian, according to the Portuguese police.
Hall had been in Lisbon to speak at a conference, Fran Welch, the dean of the School of Education, said in a statement.
“This is a tragic loss for all of us,” Welch said. “As an alumna of the College (‘97) and a dynamic instructor with a specialization is special education, she shared her love of travel with her students.”
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The statement noted that Hall had been a Fulbright Scholar in Ghana and had taken her students on study abroad trips to Italy.
Welch added, “Her energy, kindness and student-centeredness will be deeply missed.”
Hall’s passion for travel is highlighted on her Facebook page which shows photos of her in Havana, Venice and at the Colosseum in Rome.
The wreckage of the funicular, known as the Elevador da Glória, was cleared overnight and put in police custody.
Alexandre Rodrigues, the commander of the Lisbon fire brigade, told reporters Wednesday that authorities were alerted about the derailment at 6:01 p.m. local time (12:01 p.m. ET) and arrived within three minutes. The funicular derailed and crashed into a building, he said.
Becky Britton, of Minnesota, was vacationing in the city with her husband when she walked past the scene and saw what she described as carnage.
“I feel sad, and when you’re here it’s real. If it happened to us, our families, we would have been notified and that’s just devastating,” she said.
Emergency officials said all victims were pulled out of the wreckage in just over two hours.
Classified as a national monument, the Elevador da Glória funicular connected Restauradores Square to the Jardim de São Pedro de Alcântara, a popular garden in the Bairro Alto neighborhood.
The service, which was inaugurated in 1885, goes up and down a few hundred yards of a hill on a curved, traffic-free road in tandem with one going the opposite way. It is a popular attraction with Lisbon’s tourists, and long lines of people typically form for the brief rides.
Harnessed by steel cables, it can carry more than 40 people, seated and standing, and it is also commonly used by Lisbon residents.
The government’s Office for Air and Rail Accident Investigations was expected to release a preliminary technical report on the accident on Friday.
The Associated Press contributed.
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