Spain, the driver of the train derailed in Santiago de Compostela was on the phone

MADRID – At the time of the accident, the train driver was derailed on Wednesday at the door of Santiago de Compostela , Spain, causing 79 deaths and injuring a hundred passengers, some of whom are still in serious condition. According to judicial sources. The engineer, 52-year-old Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, was
talking on the phone with a railway official who gave him directions on which track to take to the arrival station. From the background noise picked up by the recorder in the cabin the driver was also consulting “a map or another similar document”.

Garzon Amo, accused of multiple culpable homicide , was  after being interrogated last Sunday by investigating judge Luis Alaez. The magistrate will soon receive the results of the analysis of the black box of the high-speed train, currently under investigation by the investigators. The technicians will try to understand the reasons for the very serious accident by examining the tracks recorded by the device.

A first result has already emerged: shortly before the crash a brake had been activated, because before the derailment the train was traveling at 192 kilometers per hour, while the accident occurred at the speed of 153 kilometers per hour. Given that it seems to confirm what Garzon has already told the police, that is essentially that he didn’t realize that he had moved from the high-speed section to the normal one and that he had taken the curve – where the limit is 80 kilometers per hour – at speeds more than Double; to have braked, but too late to prevent the convoy from derailing.

Dozens and dozens of boys were present, everyone wore the same shirt: a green heart on a white background, the photo of the missing student, the greeting Ciao Da … Fda’s boyson the front, behind the inscription “I don’t listen to the past and I don’t look at the future: I feel alive”. Words that Dario Lombardo had written on his Facebook profile the day before he died. All offices and shops have remained closed in respect of the city mourning proclaimed by mayor Fabio Di Cara. The non-religious initiatives of the patronal feast of the Holy Trinity of August 11 have also been suspended.

(30 July 2013)