Stefania Lepidi is among the passengers injured in the tragic accident involving the Elevador da Glória on September 3 in Lisbon, which claimed the lives of 16 people and left over 20 injured.
The Italian national was traveling with her 25-year-old son in the carriage closest to Restauradores, which remained nearly undamaged. She suffered a broken arm and remains in shock from what she witnessed. She is aware that if she had been in the other cabin, “perhaps I wouldn’t be here now.”
Stefania, who is in Portugal with her son for a conference organized by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), where she works as a researcher in L’Aquila, was heading with the young man to a restaurant in Bairro Alto when the accident occurred.
Speaking to the Italian channel Tg3, the researcher recounted that the carriage “started, but after a few seconds, inexplicably, it stopped suddenly, then moved again abruptly, crashing at the back against what I saw was some sort of brake at the end of the track.”
“In that violent impact, although I was seated, I was thrown, falling over people who were already on the ground, and when I landed, I supported myself with my right hand and started screaming because I hurt my wrist,” she further described.
The aftermath was tragic. “We stood outside watching the disaster that had occurred […]. We all walked out of the carriage. There were fatalities in the other one. Overall, I’m fine, with a broken arm, but it was a powerful experience. Seeing what happened to others left me shocked, I stayed on the ground for two hours because, naturally, the firefighters had other priorities; they asked me to be patient, but I saw the stretchers being carried, and some had bodies covered. I started to tremble, vomited, I was not well,” she recounted, recalling feeling “very scared.”
“I saw blood everywhere, began trembling, vomiting, those two hours were of anguish. I was told they couldn’t help me immediately because there were deceased. I had cold sweats, the sweat freezing on my skin, my back ached, and at some point, they put a thermal blanket on me,” she added.
Subsequently, Stefania, who is returning to Italy today with her son, was taken to a hospital. There, she underwent “tests to ensure there were no more injuries,” eventually being discharged on Thursday.
Speaking to Corrierre della Sera, the Italian said that the Elevador da Glória tragedy made her relive “the L’Aquila earthquake in 2009,” which devastated the city and killed over 300 people.
