GoFundme page set up for Ottawa woman widowed and hospitalized by Lisbon funicular crash

A GoFundMe page has been set up for an Ottawa woman who lost her husband in the Lisbon funicular crash. She is in hospital, recovering from severe injuries.

Hind “suffered multiple serious injuries only to find out later that her husband had passed away from his traumatic injuries. While Hind focuses on health and wellbeing, we want to come together as a community to help ease some of the burden she must now carry,” the page says.

The fundraising goal is $20,000. In the two days the page has been live, over $13,000 has been raised. It will be used to help cover essential expenses, medical costs, and day-to-day needs for Hind and her family.

Colleagues of Hind Iguernane, including her brother Youness Iguernane, are the page’s organizers. Youness will be managing the funds on her behalf.

Hind’s husband Aziz Benharref , lived in Ottawa’s Orléans neighbourhood and was on vacation in Portugal with Hind. He was 42.

Benharref lived in Ottawa for six years with his wife and brother-in-law, Youness, and worked for a tech company, according to the CBC. Both Benharref and Iguernane are originally from Morocco. He was a Canadian citizen. She is a permanent resident.

Global Affairs Canada has said it is aware of the death of two Canadian citizens in the crash. The department would not confirm the victims’ identities but extended its condolences to the families. A Quebec couple , also on vacation, were killed in the crash too.

Hind told CTV news that her husband was “one of the sweetest human beings ever.”

In recounting the tragic accident she said: “It was very scary. It crashed. I didn’t see him. I called him; I was calling Aziz and he didn’t answer.”

She has a fractured hip and shoulder, along with other injuries and was in and out of consciousness in hospital while trying to find out what happened to her husband.

“When they took me to the hospital, I kept asking and for like two nights nobody knows or at least he didn’t told me what happened to him. They were just telling me, ‘We’re all looking for him, we keep looking for him.’”

She will stay in hospital until she is able to travel to Morocco where her husband will be buried.

CNN reports that a preliminary investigation indicates that a connecting cable broke, leading to the deadly crash, which killed at least 16 people and injured several others.

A probe conducted by the Office for the Prevention and Investigation of Accidents in Civil Aviation and Rail (GPIAAF) found that a steel cable connecting the historic funicular’s two carriages had “given way.” That resulted in the carriage at the top of the street increasing in speed down the slope and later derailing, the GPIAAF report found.

Lisbon’s funicular railways are popular among tourists. The bright yellow tram-like vehicles wind through the city’s narrow, hilly streets.

The Glória route, where the crash occurred, was opened in 1885 and electrified three decades later. It travels some 275 metres from a central city square through the scenic streets of the Bairro Alto neighbourhood. The journey takes about three minutes.

The two carriages on the route are attached to opposite ends of a haulage cable, which is operated by electric motors. As one carriage travels downhill, its weight lifts the other, allowing them to simultaneously ascend and descend.

One of them crashed but the second, fully intact carriage could be seen afterwards a few metres from the wreckage at the bottom of the hill.

• Tourists in Lisbon undeterred by streetcar crash which killed 16 people
• Two Canadians dead in Lisbon funicular crash: police

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