Quebec City funicular accident kills 1, injures 15
Ron Newman
Can anyone supply more details about this accident?
------------
British Passenger Dies, 15 Hurt in Quebec Cable Car Plunge
Associated Press, 10/14/96; 03:32
QUEBEC (AP) - A cable snapped on a tourist ride carrying people down a
cliff to Quebec City's historic lower town. A British woman was killed
and 15 were injured when the cable car smashed into a wall at the
bottom of the hill.
The accident happened Saturday when the cable snapped near the end of
its downward run.
An emergency brake failed to stop the car, which sped out of control
and into the wall of a booth where passengers enter and exit the car.
``It was a dreadful mess,'' said Marcel Auclair, a city
resident. ``People were piled on top of each other.''
The dead woman was identified as Helen Tombs, 46, of London.
Ms. Tombs was traveling in a group on a 10-day tour of eastern Canada.
The 12 women and four men aboard the cable car were also from Ohio,
Massachusetts and New Hampshire as well as the French islands of
St. Pierre and Miquelon. Most sustained fractures, bruises and were in
shock.
Andre Morin, manager of Otis Canada, declined to speculate on the
cause of the accident. The cable car, he said, can carry up to 20
people.
The trip normally takes a minute or so, offering a view of the city,
the St. Lawrence River and Quebec's walled quarter atop the cliff.
--
Ron Newman rne...@cybercom.net
Web: http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/home.html
Vincent Charron
Looks like the main cable simply broke. The car was a ways down the
track already when it broke, thank god. There are about ten different
investigations presently going on including the coroners office.
The first investigators on site after the accident were from the
insurance company.
I dont know more than anyone else, even being so close to the site.
Nobody is talking to the media. It's hush hush, except for one
investigator who spoke to the cameras only to confirm the main cable
broke. Therer is apparantly a safety wire device to slow down the
freefall of this car in the event the main one breaks. Rumour has it it
also failed. This car hit very hard at the bottom and the people just
pilled up over top of each other to the point of severe injury and one
death. The slope of the track is about 80 degrees. I get the creeps
everytime I use it.
Vince
Québec-City
au...@cam.org
In <326269...@total.net>, Vincent Charron <ch...@total.net> ecrivait:
>death. The slope of the track is about 80 degrees. I get the creeps
>everytime I use it.
>Vince
>Quibec-City
C'est bizarre ca. Je veux dire, c'est pas comme un ascenseur pour monter au
20ieme etage. Monter au 20ieme par les marches, c'est pas commode. Par
contre, descendre la cote a pied, au lieu d'utiliser le funiculaire, c'est rien
du tout...
Mais la je vois venir: le funiculaire est pratique parce qu'il fait economiser du
temps. Quand tu est au travail et que tu n'as pas grand temps, because ze
time is ze money, hop! on funicule.
Et bonjour la bravoure!
Alain
MdF: Finisterre - "In Limine" (Italie, 1996)
Colin R. Leech
>> The accident happened Saturday when the cable snapped near the end of
>> its downward run.
Hey, waitaminute ...
As I recall, the funiculaire consists of two passenger compartments, which
travel opposite to each other. If one was near the bottom, the other
should have been near the top, explaining the extent of the damage and
injuries. As others have mentioned, there should have been a backup
braking system as well to slow down the cab.
--
##### |\^/| Colin R. Leech ag414 or crl...@freenet.carleton.ca
##### _|\| |/|_ Civil engineer by training, transport planner by choice.
##### > < Opinions are my own. Consider them shareware if you want.
##### >_./|\._< "If you can't return a favour, pass it on." - A.L. Brown
Pat Scrimgeour
ag...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Colin R. Leech) wrote:
>As I recall, the funiculaire consists of two passenger compartments, which
>travel opposite to each other. If one was near the bottom, the other
>should have been near the top,
The news photos showed the eastern/downstream cabin quite near the
top, so if the cable that broke was one that connected the two cabins
as counterweights to each other, then the brakes must have held on the
eastern cabin. It could only have been worse if one cabin had fallen
a greater distance.
Pat Scrimgeour
Michel AZEMA
I have created a special page concerning the Quebec funicular accident
with some pictures of the funicular and cabins (before the crash) and
some technical informations.
I will update this page as soon I will receive confirmed informations
from my Canadian contact about the accident.
The URL is the same as FUNIMAG URL:
http://www.imaginet.fr/~mikeaz/
Michel AZEMA
Colin R. Leech
(au...@cam.org) writes:
> In <326269...@total.net>, Vincent Charron <ch...@total.net> ecrivait:
>
>>death. The slope of the track is about 80 degrees. I get the creeps
>>everytime I use it.
>
> C'est bizarre ca. Je veux dire, c'est pas comme un ascenseur pour monter au
> 20ieme etage. [...]
For the benefit of people on misc.transport.* who don't speak French, Aulne
raises an excellent point. The funiculaire is really more like a 20 storey
elevator than anything else (but we don't have a misc.transport.elevator
newsgroup yet :-).
Votre Nom d'utilsateur ICI
In article <547b9v$5...@freenet-news.carleton.ca>, ag...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Colin R. Leech) says:
>
>
> (au...@cam.org) writes:
>> In <326269...@total.net>, Vincent Charron <ch...@total.net> ecrivait:
>>
>>>death. The slope of the track is about 80 degrees. I get the creeps
>>>everytime I use it.
>>
>> C'est bizarre ca. Je veux dire, c'est pas comme un ascenseur pour monter au
>> 20ieme etage. [...]
>
>For the benefit of people on misc.transport.* who don't speak French, Aulne
>raises an excellent point. The funiculaire is really more like a 20 storey
>elevator than anything else (but we don't have a misc.transport.elevator
>newsgroup yet :-).
>
I would like to precise that the Quebec City Funicular has a gradient of exactly 100% that corresponds to an angle of 45°!
The Quebec Funicular, with 45 degrees, is one of the steepest funicular in the world
I am sorry but 80 degrees is a lot!!!!!!
To have a real estimation of a funicular gradient the best way is to look at a funicular from the side. If you look at it in the axle of the track it seems that the tracks are vertical!!!
This is an optical effect.
Michel AZEMA
FUNIMAG the first WWW magazine about funiculars.
http://www.imaginet.fr/~mikeaz/