Spain train diver facing charges

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 27 Juli 2013 | 17.52

The driver of a speeding train that crashed in Spain has refused to respond to police questioning. Source: AAP

THE driver of a train that hurtled off the rails killing 78 people in Spain faces possible charges as doctors work to identify the last three victims of the country's worst rail disaster in decades.

As Spain mourned on Saturday, the city of Santiago de Compostela where the crash occurred is preparing a funeral for Monday in its cathedral, a destination for Catholic pilgrims from around the world.

Police have accused the driver, identified by media as Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, 52, of "recklessness" in Wednesday night's devastating crash.

They said late on Friday that he refused to answer their questions in his hospital bed and the case has been passed to the courts.

The train was said to have been travelling at more than twice the speed limit when it hurtled off the rails and slammed into a concrete wall, with one carriage leaping up onto a siding.

Smoke billowed from the gutted cars as bodies were strewn across the tracks. Locals said they came running from their houses to drag passengers from the wreckage.

The grey-haired driver, who reportedly boasted of his love for speed online, was under police surveillance in hospital, said Jaime Iglesias, police chief in the northwestern Galicia region.

The driver faces criminal accusations including "recklessness", Iglesias told a news conference, but has not yet been charged.

A police spokesman later said the driver had refused to respond to police questioning on Friday and the courts would now decide on judicial action.

Spanish media published photographs of the man they identified as Garzon after the crash, with blood covering the right side of his face.

Leading Spanish newspaper El Pais said the driver of the train had been unable to brake in time.

Seventy-eight passengers perished, three of whom have yet to be identified, and 178 were injured, regional authorities said.

Following the crash, weeping relatives waited in a conference centre in the city for news of their loved ones, attended by counsellors.

At least seven foreigners are among the dead - a US citizen, an Algerian, a Mexican, a Brazilian, a Venezuelan, an Italian and a national of the Dominican Republic, a judicial source said.

Most of the injured are Spanish, but at least eight were foreigners from Argentina, Britain, Colombia, the US and Peru.

The number of people still in hospital dropped to 81, including 28 adults and three children who were in critical condition, Galician Health Minister Rocio Mosquera said.

The driver, while still trapped in his cab, told railway officials by radio that the train had taken the curve at 190 kilometres an hour, more than double the 80 km/h speed limit on that section of track, El Pais said, citing unidentified sources in the investigation.

"I was going at 190! I hope no one died because it will weigh on my conscience," he was quoted as saying.

He has reportedly been with state rail company Renfe for 30 years, including 13 years of experience as a driver.


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