Train derailment probe focuses on driver speed
Source: Agencies |
July 27, 2013, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
SPANISH police were investigating yesterday whether the driver of a train that crashed in Santiago de Compostela killing dozens had been driving at reckless speed when he took a tight curve.
Spain's worst train wreck in decades on Wednesday evening killed at least 78, with six bodies still unidentified and 95 people in hospital, immediately raising questions about why an experienced driver was traveling so fast into a sharp bend.
Driver Francisco Garzon, 52, was under arrest in a hospital in the city in northwest Spain and was due to give a statement to police later yesterday.
Garzon was being investigated for criminal behavior in causing the accident and "recklessness," regional police chief Jaime Iglesias said.
A spokeswoman for the supreme court in the Galicia region said Garzon had not yet been charged and evidence including the train's "black box" was being assembled.
"We're collecting elements to be used as evidence, videos, audios and all the technical work that is being done on the train," she said.
Renfe, the Spanish state train company, said Garzon was a 30-year company veteran who had been driving for a decade. He was highly qualified and had been driving on the line where the accident took place for about a year.
On the morning of the tragedy, he had driven a train on the same line, which connects La Coruna with Madrid, and a Renfe spokesman said he knew every twist and turn of the route.
It has been widely reported that he took a sharp curve with an 80-kilometer per hour speed limit at more than twice that speed.
Another train driver on that line told Cadena Ser radio that the blame should not be put on his colleague.
"There is no security warning for the speed, it's pure human factor, you have to slow down manually and you have no assistance in the cabin," said Manuel Mato.
While police and a judge were looking into potential negligence on the part of the driver, the Public Works Ministry launched a more technical investigation. Renfe and Adif, the state track operator, began their own probes.
Investigators want to know why the train was going so fast. Did the driver fail to heed speed limits? Did brakes fail? What about the safety system to force the train or driver to slow down if going too fast?
Security video footage showed the train, with 247 people on board, hurtling into a concrete wall at the side of the track.
Spain's worst train wreck in decades on Wednesday evening killed at least 78, with six bodies still unidentified and 95 people in hospital, immediately raising questions about why an experienced driver was traveling so fast into a sharp bend.
Driver Francisco Garzon, 52, was under arrest in a hospital in the city in northwest Spain and was due to give a statement to police later yesterday.
Garzon was being investigated for criminal behavior in causing the accident and "recklessness," regional police chief Jaime Iglesias said.
A spokeswoman for the supreme court in the Galicia region said Garzon had not yet been charged and evidence including the train's "black box" was being assembled.
"We're collecting elements to be used as evidence, videos, audios and all the technical work that is being done on the train," she said.
Renfe, the Spanish state train company, said Garzon was a 30-year company veteran who had been driving for a decade. He was highly qualified and had been driving on the line where the accident took place for about a year.
On the morning of the tragedy, he had driven a train on the same line, which connects La Coruna with Madrid, and a Renfe spokesman said he knew every twist and turn of the route.
It has been widely reported that he took a sharp curve with an 80-kilometer per hour speed limit at more than twice that speed.
Another train driver on that line told Cadena Ser radio that the blame should not be put on his colleague.
"There is no security warning for the speed, it's pure human factor, you have to slow down manually and you have no assistance in the cabin," said Manuel Mato.
While police and a judge were looking into potential negligence on the part of the driver, the Public Works Ministry launched a more technical investigation. Renfe and Adif, the state track operator, began their own probes.
Investigators want to know why the train was going so fast. Did the driver fail to heed speed limits? Did brakes fail? What about the safety system to force the train or driver to slow down if going too fast?
Security video footage showed the train, with 247 people on board, hurtling into a concrete wall at the side of the track.
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