A 42-year-old Canadian man is among the sixteen people who died in the Lisbon funicular accident on Wednesday, September 3. His wife revealed that they had swapped seats just before the tragedy.

Sixteen people died in the terrible cable car accident in Lisbon on Wednesday, September 3. Among the victims was a 42-year-old Canadian man who was on vacation in Portugal with his wife. Interviewed by Canadian television station CTV News Channel, the latter said that they had switched seats shortly before the tragedy.

That day, the two tourists had decided to take the famous Gloria funicular, a flagship attraction of the Portuguese capital. After boarding, the forty-year-old offered to sit in his seat to make it more comfortable for his wife. "I was supposed to sit in her seat," she said.

“He was one of the kindest people ever.”

The woman describes a "very scary" and "very fast" accident. While "everyone was screaming," she called her husband several times, but he never answered. Suffering from a broken shoulder and hip, she was quickly taken to the hospital. "For two nights," she kept asking the staff about her husband's condition. "Nobody knew. They just kept telling me, 'We're all looking for him, we're still looking for him,'" she continues.

It was while asking for help on social media that his loved ones learned the terrible news a few hours later. "He was one of the kindest people ever. He was kind to everyone. He was generous, hardworking, and respectful. He was a wonderful husband," his wife told our colleagues. The man will be buried in Morocco, where he is from.

The Gloria funicular consists of two yellow carriages that can accommodate 42 people. According to initial observations, the accident was caused by "the disconnection of the cable between the two cabins." Due to its speed, the vehicle derailed and began to overturn. It then hurtled down a street in the city center and crashed into a building "at a speed of around 60 km/h." A French woman was among sixteen people who died.