Spanish train crash 'like a scene from hell'
Source: Agencies |
July 26, 2013, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A SPANISH train driver is under police investigation after at least 80 people died when the train hit a sharp bend at speed, derailed and caught fire near the pilgrimage center of Santiago de Compostela.
It was one of Europe's worst rail disasters.
Dramatic video footage from a security camera outside the northwestern city showed the train, with 247 people on board, hurtling into a concrete wall at the side of the track as carriages jack-knifed and the engine overturned.
One local official described the aftermath of the crash, on the eve of one of Europe's biggest Christian festivals in the ancient city, as like a scene from hell, with bodies strewn next to the tracks.
The impact was so huge one carriage flew several meters into the air and landed on the other side of a high concrete barrier.
"We heard a massive noise and we went down the tracks. I helped get a few injured and bodies out of the train. I went into one of the cars but I'd rather not tell you what I saw there," said Ricardo Martinez, a 47-year-old baker in the city.
The train had two drivers and one is in hospital, the Galicia government said.
It was not immediately clear which driver was under investigation or in hospital. The train, operated by state-owned company Renfe, was built by Bombardier and Talgo and was around five years old. It had almost the maximum number of passengers.
Newspaper accounts cited witnesses as saying one driver, Francisco Jose Garzon, who had helped rescue victims, shouted into a phone: "I've derailed! What do I do?"
The 52-year-old had been a train driver for 30 years, a Renfe spokeswoman said. Many newspapers published excerpts from his Facebook account where he was reported to have boasted of driving trains at high speed. The page was taken offline yesterday and the reports could not be verified.
El Pais newspaper said one of the drivers told the railway station by radio after being trapped in his cabin that the train entered the bend at 190 kilometers per hour. The speed limit on that stretch of track, laid in 2011, was 80kph.
"We're only human! We're only human!" the driver told the station, the newspaper said. "I hope there are no dead, because this will fall on my conscience."
Investigators were trying to establish why the train was going so fast and why fail-safe security devices to keep speed within permitted limits had not worked.
Spain's rail safety record is better than the European average, ranking 18th out of 27 countries in terms of railway deaths per kilometer traveled, the European Railway Agency said. There were 218 train accidents in Spain between 2008 and 2011, well below the European Union average of 426 for the same period, the agency said.
Cranes were still pulling out mangled debris yesterday morning, 12 hours after the crash. Emergency workers had stopped their search for survivors, a spokeswoman said.
Firefighters called off a strike to help with the disaster, while hospital staff, many operating on reduced salaries because of spending cuts in recession-hit Spain, worked overtime to tend to the injured.
The disaster happened on the eve of a major festival dedicated to St James, one of Jesus's 12 disciples, whose remains are said to rest in the city's cathedral.
The city's tourism board said all festivities, including the traditional High Mass at the cathedral, had been canceled as the city went into mourning following the crash.
In total, 178 people were taken to hospital after the crash, a regional government spokeswoman said. Of those, 95 were still being treated, of whom 36, including four children, were in a serious condition, she said.
US citizens were among the injured, the US embassy said. At least one British citizen was wounded, the British embassy said. Several other nationalities were believed to be among the passengers.
Ana Taboada, a 29-year-old hospital worker, was one of the first on the scene.
"When the dust lifted I saw corpses. I didn't make it down to the track, because I was helping the passengers that were coming up the embankment," she said. "I saw a man trying to break a window with a stone to help those inside get out."
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela, capital of Galicia region, visited the site and the main hospital yesterday.
He declared three days of national mourning for the victims.
Clinics in Santiago de Compostela were overwhelmed with people flocking to give blood, while hotels organized free rooms for relatives.
Madrid sent forensic scientists and hospital staff to the scene on special flights.
It was one of Europe's worst rail disasters.
Dramatic video footage from a security camera outside the northwestern city showed the train, with 247 people on board, hurtling into a concrete wall at the side of the track as carriages jack-knifed and the engine overturned.
One local official described the aftermath of the crash, on the eve of one of Europe's biggest Christian festivals in the ancient city, as like a scene from hell, with bodies strewn next to the tracks.
The impact was so huge one carriage flew several meters into the air and landed on the other side of a high concrete barrier.
"We heard a massive noise and we went down the tracks. I helped get a few injured and bodies out of the train. I went into one of the cars but I'd rather not tell you what I saw there," said Ricardo Martinez, a 47-year-old baker in the city.
The train had two drivers and one is in hospital, the Galicia government said.
It was not immediately clear which driver was under investigation or in hospital. The train, operated by state-owned company Renfe, was built by Bombardier and Talgo and was around five years old. It had almost the maximum number of passengers.
Newspaper accounts cited witnesses as saying one driver, Francisco Jose Garzon, who had helped rescue victims, shouted into a phone: "I've derailed! What do I do?"
The 52-year-old had been a train driver for 30 years, a Renfe spokeswoman said. Many newspapers published excerpts from his Facebook account where he was reported to have boasted of driving trains at high speed. The page was taken offline yesterday and the reports could not be verified.
El Pais newspaper said one of the drivers told the railway station by radio after being trapped in his cabin that the train entered the bend at 190 kilometers per hour. The speed limit on that stretch of track, laid in 2011, was 80kph.
"We're only human! We're only human!" the driver told the station, the newspaper said. "I hope there are no dead, because this will fall on my conscience."
Investigators were trying to establish why the train was going so fast and why fail-safe security devices to keep speed within permitted limits had not worked.
Spain's rail safety record is better than the European average, ranking 18th out of 27 countries in terms of railway deaths per kilometer traveled, the European Railway Agency said. There were 218 train accidents in Spain between 2008 and 2011, well below the European Union average of 426 for the same period, the agency said.
Cranes were still pulling out mangled debris yesterday morning, 12 hours after the crash. Emergency workers had stopped their search for survivors, a spokeswoman said.
Firefighters called off a strike to help with the disaster, while hospital staff, many operating on reduced salaries because of spending cuts in recession-hit Spain, worked overtime to tend to the injured.
The disaster happened on the eve of a major festival dedicated to St James, one of Jesus's 12 disciples, whose remains are said to rest in the city's cathedral.
The city's tourism board said all festivities, including the traditional High Mass at the cathedral, had been canceled as the city went into mourning following the crash.
In total, 178 people were taken to hospital after the crash, a regional government spokeswoman said. Of those, 95 were still being treated, of whom 36, including four children, were in a serious condition, she said.
US citizens were among the injured, the US embassy said. At least one British citizen was wounded, the British embassy said. Several other nationalities were believed to be among the passengers.
Ana Taboada, a 29-year-old hospital worker, was one of the first on the scene.
"When the dust lifted I saw corpses. I didn't make it down to the track, because I was helping the passengers that were coming up the embankment," she said. "I saw a man trying to break a window with a stone to help those inside get out."
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela, capital of Galicia region, visited the site and the main hospital yesterday.
He declared three days of national mourning for the victims.
Clinics in Santiago de Compostela were overwhelmed with people flocking to give blood, while hotels organized free rooms for relatives.
Madrid sent forensic scientists and hospital staff to the scene on special flights.
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