One of the drivers of a train which
derailed in north-western Spain killing at least 80 passengers, Wednesday, has been put
under formal investigation, court officials have said. Speed will be a factor in the inquiry, as a security camera captured the
train crashing as it hurtled round a bend. The Madrid to Ferrol train's data recording "black box" is now with the judge in charge of the investigation.
Dozens of people were hurt, 32 seriously, in the incident near Santiago de Compostela.
Spain will hold three days of mourning over the crash, one of its worst. At least 130 people were taken to hospital after the crash, and 95 are still being treated, health officials say. Children were among the 32 critical injuries. King Juan Carlos visited survivors and the families of victims at Santiago's University Hospital.
"All Spaniards are united at this moment," he said.
People from several nationalities are among the wounded, including five
Americans and one Briton. One American was among the dead.
Accident caught on video
A spokeswoman for the Galicia Supreme Court said the
driver, who was slightly injured in the crash, was under investigation. Named by Spanish media as Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, he is expected to face
questioning by police on Thursday. It was unclear whether anyone else was subject to investigation. The train's carriages have been removed from the track by cranes and sent for
analysis.
The president of railway firm Renfe, Julio Gomez Pomar, was quoted by El
Mundo newspaper as saying the driver, who was aged 52, had 30 years of
experience with the company and had been operating trains on the line for more
than a year. He said the train which derailed had no technical problems.
"The train had passed an inspection that same morning. Those trains are
inspected every 7,500km... Its maintenance record was perfect," he told Spanish
radio.
But Mr Garzon, who was trapped in the cab after the accident, is quoted as
saying moments after the crash that the train had taken the curve at 190 km/h
(118mph) despite a speed limit on that section of 80km/h, unidentified
investigation sources have told Spanish media. If this is the case, it remains to be seen whether a systems failure or
driver error was the cause, correspondents say.
Spain has invested huge amounts of money in its rail
network and has a relatively good safety record. According to official figures, the crash is one of the worst rail disasters
in Spanish history.
In 1972, a frontal train crash in Andalusia, in the south, left dozens of
people dead. The figures given at the time ranged between 76 and 86. In 1944, hundreds of people were believed to have been killed in a crash in
Torre del Bierzo, in Leon province - though the official account in days of
heavy censorship during the early rule of Gen Francisco Franco gave the figure
as 78 killed.
Renfe said the train came off the tracks about 3 or 4km
(2-2.5 miles) from Santiago de Compostela station at 20:41 local time (18:41
GMT) on Wednesday. It was on the express route between the capital, Madrid, and the port city of
Ferrol on the Galician coast, with 218 passengers on board - in addition to an
unknown number of staff and crew.
Firefighter Jaime Tizon, one of the first to reach the site of the crash,
described the scene as "hell".
"I'm coming from hell, I couldn't tell you if the engine was on fire, or one
of the carriages or what..." he told Spanish newspaper ABC after dragging the
injured and bodies from the train.
One witness, Ricardo Montesco, described how the train carriages "piled on
top of one another" after the train hit the curve.
"A lot of people were squashed on the bottom. We tried to squeeze out of the
bottom of the wagons to get out and we realized the train was burning... I was
in the second wagon and there was fire. I saw corpses all around me," he told Spanish Cadena
Ser radio station.
The derailment happened on the eve of Santiago de Compostela's main annual
festival where thousands of Christian pilgrims were expected to flock to the
city in honour of St James.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Through this ever open gate
None come too early
None too late
Thanks for dropping in ... the PICs