The driver of a train that derailed in Spain is being questioned after admitting to speeding. Source: AAP
THE focus of a probe into a horrific train derailment in northwestern Spain that killed at least 80 people has turned to the injured driver, who reportedly boasted of his love of speed online.
The driver, identified by local media as Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, 52, was under police surveillance in hospital after the train hurtled off the tracks late on Wednesday while apparently going at twice the legal speed limit in one of Spain's worst rail disasters ever.
State train company Renfe said the driver was a 30-year veteran of the firm with more than a decade of train driving experience.
The train's data recording "black box" and other documents were passed over to the judge in charge of the investigation on Thursday.
Attention has so far centred on Garzon Amo, one of two drivers on the train, after media reports described him as a speed freak who once gleefully posted a picture on his Facebook page of a train speedometer showing it was travelling at 200km/h.
Below the photo he wrote the caption: "I am on the edge, I can't go faster or else I will be fined."
His Facebook page has since been taken down, but Spanish newspapers quoted another of his posts as saying: "What fun it would be to race the Guardia Civil (police) and pass them, causing their radar to blow up hehehe. What a huge fine that would be for Renfe."
Police originally intended to question him on Thursday, but had to wait because he was still being treated for light injuries sustained in the crash on the outskirts of the pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela, a police source said.
The El Pais newspaper, citing sources close to the investigation, said the driver stated immediately after the crash that he had been travelling at 190km/h on a curve with a speed limit of 80km/h.
"I am going at 190! I hope no one died because it will weigh on my conscience," he reportedly told supervisors over the radio while trapped inside the cab after the eight-carriage train flew off the tracks on a curve at 8.42pm.
Dramatic video footage from a security camera showed the fast-moving train, which was travelling from Madrid to the port of Ferrol, slamming into a concrete wall at the side of the track as the engine overturned.
On Friday, the paper reported the driver was unable to brake in time.
"The railway warning systems detected that Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, the driver of the Alvia train that departed Madrid, was travelling at 190 kilometres an hour when it should not exceed 80," El Pais wrote.
"The driver acknowledged that the alarm went off in the control panel and he tried to brake but was not able to avert the tragedy," the newspaper added.
The Galician regional government said 80 people died and at least another 100 were injured in the accident, which left bodies and gutted carriages strewn across the tracks.
The US Department of State confirmed that one of its citizens was among the dead and five others had been injured.
Eighty-three people were still in hospital, 32 of them in critical condition, including four children.
Of the 80 dead, 13 still had not been identified.
Officials were holding off giving a complete list of the injured until everyone has been identified.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a native of the city, declared three days of national mourning after visiting the scene of the accident.
Renfe president Julio Gomez-Pomar Rodriguez told Cadena Cope radio station that it was too early to speculate about the cause of the disaster, but the Spanish secretary of state for transport, Rafael Catala, said excessive speed appeared to be the culprit.
"The tragedy that happened in Santiago de Compostela seems to be linked to excessive speed, but we are still waiting on the judicial investigation," he told radio station Cadena Ser.
Renfe said the train had no technical problems and had just passed an inspection on the morning of the accident.
Many of the passengers were thought to be on their way to a festival in honour of Saint James, the apostle who gave his name to Santiago de Compostela, an annual event that draws crowds of pilgrims to the town.
All festivities have been cancelled as Spain plunged into mourning for the victims.
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