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Spain train horror crash
- Thread starter Hemi300c
- Start date
Hemi300c
Honorary Master
TehStranger
Executive Member
Very tragic, hope the death toll doesn't rise any higher. 
Ironically my iPod decided to shuffle to "Spanish Train" by Chris de Burgh this morning.
Ironically my iPod decided to shuffle to "Spanish Train" by Chris de Burgh this morning.
Aaaay...
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
At least 77 people dead in Spain Train Accident
Spanish investigators were trying to determine Thursday why a passenger train jumped the tracks and sent eight cars crashing into each other just before arriving in this northwestern shrine city on the eve of a major Christian religious festival, killing at least 77 people and injuring more than 140.
Seventy-three people were found dead at the scene of the accident and four died in hospitals, said Maria Pardo Rios, spokeswoman for the Galicia region's main court. At least 141 people were injured - some of them critically - after the eight-carriage train carrying 218 passengers derailed about an hour before sunset Wednesday night.
Authorities did not identify any possible causes of the accident on a pronounced curve just outside Santiago de Compostela, but a spokeswoman with Spain's Interior Ministry said Thursday that the possibility that the derailment was caused by a terrorist attack had been ruled out. She spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ministry policy.
It was Spain's deadliest train accident since 1972, when a train collided with a bus in southwestern Spain, killing 86 people and injuring 112. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela, went to the crash scene on Thursday. Officials in the city canceled ceremonies for its annual religious festival that attracts tens of thousands of Christians from around the world.
Rescue workers spent the night searching through smashed cars alongside the tracks, and Pardo said it was possible that the death toll could go higher. A regional Galicia health official, Rocio Mosquera, told reporters at a press conference early Thursday morning that 141 passengers from the train had been treated at area hospitals, with their conditions ranging from light injuries to serious. Some were still in surgery hours after the crash.
As dawn arrived, cranes brought to the scene were used to lift the cars off the tracks and rescue workers were seen collecting passenger luggage and putting it into the back of a truck next to the tracks.
The site itself was a scene of horror immediately after the crash. Smoke billowed from at least one car which caught fire; another broke into two parts. Residents of the urban neighborhood alongside the tracks struggled to help victims out of the toppled cars.
Rescue workers lined up bodies covered in blankets alongside the tracks and some passengers were pulled out of broken windows. Television images showed one man atop a carriage lying on its side, using a pickaxe to try to smash through a window. Residents said other rescuers used rocks.
State-owned train operator Renfe said in a statement an unspecified number of staff were also on board the train during the 8.41 p.m. (1841 GMT) crash on a section of tracks about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) from Santiago de Compostela that came online two years ago. Spanish media said the train had two conductors aboard and that both survived.
Renfe and track operator Adif were cooperating with a judge who has been appointed to investigate the accident, Renfe said.
Catholic pilgrims converge on the Santiago de Compostela annually to celebrate a festival honoring St. James, the disciple of Jesus whose remains are said to rest in a shrine. The city is the main gathering point for the faithful who make it to the end of the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route that has drawn Christians since the Middle Ages.
The accident created a scene that was "Dante-esque," said Alberto Nunez Feijoo, president of the region of Galicia where Santiago de Compostela is the capital. He declared seven days of mourning to honor the victims.
Several injured passengers said they felt a strong vibration just before the cars jumped the tracks, said Xabier Martinez, a photographer who talked with them after arriving at the scene as rescue workers were removing dozens of bodies.
Passenger Ricardo Montero told the Cadena Ser radio station that "when the train reached that bend it began to flip over, many times, with some carriages ending up on top of others, leaving many people trapped below. We had to get under the carriages to get out."
Another passenger, Sergio Prego, told Cadena Ser the train "travelled very fast" just before it derailed and the cars flipped upside down, on their sides and into the air.
"I've been very lucky because I'm one of the few able to walk out," he said.
The train, which belongs to the state-owned Renfe, started from Madrid and was scheduled to end its journey at El Ferrol, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Santiago de Compostela. Although it was not one of Spain's fastest trains called AVEs, it was a relatively luxurious version that uses the same kind of track as Spain's fastest expresses.
Other major train crashes in Spain over the decades include a 1944 accident on a train traveling from Madrid to the Galicia region that killed 78 people. A subway crash in the southern city of Valencia killed 43 people in 2006 and was blamed on excessive speed. The Madrid train bombings carried out in 2004 killed 191 people.
Source : Sapa-AP /pk
Date : 25 Jul 2013 10:57
Spanish investigators were trying to determine Thursday why a passenger train jumped the tracks and sent eight cars crashing into each other just before arriving in this northwestern shrine city on the eve of a major Christian religious festival, killing at least 77 people and injuring more than 140.
Seventy-three people were found dead at the scene of the accident and four died in hospitals, said Maria Pardo Rios, spokeswoman for the Galicia region's main court. At least 141 people were injured - some of them critically - after the eight-carriage train carrying 218 passengers derailed about an hour before sunset Wednesday night.
Authorities did not identify any possible causes of the accident on a pronounced curve just outside Santiago de Compostela, but a spokeswoman with Spain's Interior Ministry said Thursday that the possibility that the derailment was caused by a terrorist attack had been ruled out. She spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ministry policy.
It was Spain's deadliest train accident since 1972, when a train collided with a bus in southwestern Spain, killing 86 people and injuring 112. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela, went to the crash scene on Thursday. Officials in the city canceled ceremonies for its annual religious festival that attracts tens of thousands of Christians from around the world.
Rescue workers spent the night searching through smashed cars alongside the tracks, and Pardo said it was possible that the death toll could go higher. A regional Galicia health official, Rocio Mosquera, told reporters at a press conference early Thursday morning that 141 passengers from the train had been treated at area hospitals, with their conditions ranging from light injuries to serious. Some were still in surgery hours after the crash.
As dawn arrived, cranes brought to the scene were used to lift the cars off the tracks and rescue workers were seen collecting passenger luggage and putting it into the back of a truck next to the tracks.
The site itself was a scene of horror immediately after the crash. Smoke billowed from at least one car which caught fire; another broke into two parts. Residents of the urban neighborhood alongside the tracks struggled to help victims out of the toppled cars.
Rescue workers lined up bodies covered in blankets alongside the tracks and some passengers were pulled out of broken windows. Television images showed one man atop a carriage lying on its side, using a pickaxe to try to smash through a window. Residents said other rescuers used rocks.
State-owned train operator Renfe said in a statement an unspecified number of staff were also on board the train during the 8.41 p.m. (1841 GMT) crash on a section of tracks about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) from Santiago de Compostela that came online two years ago. Spanish media said the train had two conductors aboard and that both survived.
Renfe and track operator Adif were cooperating with a judge who has been appointed to investigate the accident, Renfe said.
Catholic pilgrims converge on the Santiago de Compostela annually to celebrate a festival honoring St. James, the disciple of Jesus whose remains are said to rest in a shrine. The city is the main gathering point for the faithful who make it to the end of the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route that has drawn Christians since the Middle Ages.
The accident created a scene that was "Dante-esque," said Alberto Nunez Feijoo, president of the region of Galicia where Santiago de Compostela is the capital. He declared seven days of mourning to honor the victims.
Several injured passengers said they felt a strong vibration just before the cars jumped the tracks, said Xabier Martinez, a photographer who talked with them after arriving at the scene as rescue workers were removing dozens of bodies.
Passenger Ricardo Montero told the Cadena Ser radio station that "when the train reached that bend it began to flip over, many times, with some carriages ending up on top of others, leaving many people trapped below. We had to get under the carriages to get out."
Another passenger, Sergio Prego, told Cadena Ser the train "travelled very fast" just before it derailed and the cars flipped upside down, on their sides and into the air.
"I've been very lucky because I'm one of the few able to walk out," he said.
The train, which belongs to the state-owned Renfe, started from Madrid and was scheduled to end its journey at El Ferrol, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Santiago de Compostela. Although it was not one of Spain's fastest trains called AVEs, it was a relatively luxurious version that uses the same kind of track as Spain's fastest expresses.
Other major train crashes in Spain over the decades include a 1944 accident on a train traveling from Madrid to the Galicia region that killed 78 people. A subway crash in the southern city of Valencia killed 43 people in 2006 and was blamed on excessive speed. The Madrid train bombings carried out in 2004 killed 191 people.
Source : Sapa-AP /pk
Date : 25 Jul 2013 10:57
Rocket Raccoon
Executive Member
Tragic.
Irony: The one form of humor that everyone thinks they understand, when actually no one really does. Truly, it is the cleverest joke ever played on mankind.
Irony: The one form of humor that everyone thinks they understand, when actually no one really does. Truly, it is the cleverest joke ever played on mankind.
Azbubu
Honorary Master
We can thank Alanis for that.
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Video here as well....
http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.../25/mxp-spain-train-moment-of-impact.hln.html
http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.../25/mxp-spain-train-moment-of-impact.hln.html
TehStranger
Executive Member
Should probably have expanded that to say "Switched over from the bad news on the radio to music to cheer me up. Spanish train started playing reminding me of the bad new. Ironic."
Meh.
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Driver Named as Suspect
The driver of a Spanish high-speed train that derailed, killing at least 80 people, was named Thursday as a suspect in one of Europe's worst rail accidents.
A court in Santiago de Compostela ordered police to question Francisco Jose Garzon, 52, who had admitted to driving at 190 kilometres/per hour on a curve where the speed limit was 80 km/hr.
The train carrying 218 passengers from Madrid to Ferrol derailed and split apart late Wednesday at Angrois, about 4 kilometres from the regional capital, Santiago de Compostela.
Officials confirmed that the number of dead had risen from 78 to 80. Ninety-five injured people remained in hospital. Thirty-six of them, including four children, were in critical condition.
The injured included several citizens of the United States and the United Kingdom, the two countries' embassies said.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who visited the accident scene and the injured in hospital, said both the government and the judiciary were investigating the causes of the tragedy.
The driver had boasted on Facebook that he sometimes defied controls by driving trains at 200 km/hr, the daily El Pais reported.
Garzon, who has 30 years of experience, suffered only minor injuries.
The stretch of track on which the train was travelling did not have an automatic cab signalling system, which would have stopped it in the event of excessive speed, representatives of the engine drivers' union said.
They also criticized the route of the train, which was based on a conventional - instead of high-speed - rail line and included a steep curve.
The rail management company said the train's security systems were adequate.
The train was running five minutes late, but the drivers' union said there was no pressure on staff to speed up in such cases.
The train had been inspected the day before the accident, sources at the rail company Renfe said.
People fearing for their loved ones are still waiting for about half of the fatalities to be identified. Some of the bodies were so disfigured that identification was difficult.
Forensic experts called for DNA tests, while police examined the contents of suitcases strewn on the track to speed up the identification process.
Passengers included holidaymakers and pilgrims travelling to weekend festivities in Santiago de Compostela.
All of the carriages left the rails, the rear engine caught fire, and one of the wagons was hurled 15 metres. Wagons that were ripped open or smashed on top of each other were scattered around.
"We heard a noise, enormous, like never before. We went down there and saw that the convoy had split in two," said a witness.
One of the survivors, Raul Fariza, said he felt the train derail and then saw dozens of bodies on the floor, including that of his wife.
"The impact tore her scalp off and she was soaked in blood," though she was still alive, he told El Pais.
Local residents rushed to the site, bringing water and blankets and smashing wagon windows with stones to help those trapped inside.
Public administrations around Spain, including parliament, observed a moment of silence. King Juan Carlos said the accident filled him with pain and sadness. The king and Queen Sofia are visiting Santiago de Compostela to meet victims' families.
Spain has decreed three days of mourning, and messages of condolence were sent from all over the world.
The rail accident was the worst in Spain since 1972, when a collision between two trains claimed 86 lives near Seville. The worst train accident in the country's history killed up to 800 people in 1944.
Source : Sapa-dpa /sdv
Date : 25 Jul 2013 17:29
The driver of a Spanish high-speed train that derailed, killing at least 80 people, was named Thursday as a suspect in one of Europe's worst rail accidents.
A court in Santiago de Compostela ordered police to question Francisco Jose Garzon, 52, who had admitted to driving at 190 kilometres/per hour on a curve where the speed limit was 80 km/hr.
The train carrying 218 passengers from Madrid to Ferrol derailed and split apart late Wednesday at Angrois, about 4 kilometres from the regional capital, Santiago de Compostela.
Officials confirmed that the number of dead had risen from 78 to 80. Ninety-five injured people remained in hospital. Thirty-six of them, including four children, were in critical condition.
The injured included several citizens of the United States and the United Kingdom, the two countries' embassies said.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who visited the accident scene and the injured in hospital, said both the government and the judiciary were investigating the causes of the tragedy.
The driver had boasted on Facebook that he sometimes defied controls by driving trains at 200 km/hr, the daily El Pais reported.
Garzon, who has 30 years of experience, suffered only minor injuries.
The stretch of track on which the train was travelling did not have an automatic cab signalling system, which would have stopped it in the event of excessive speed, representatives of the engine drivers' union said.
They also criticized the route of the train, which was based on a conventional - instead of high-speed - rail line and included a steep curve.
The rail management company said the train's security systems were adequate.
The train was running five minutes late, but the drivers' union said there was no pressure on staff to speed up in such cases.
The train had been inspected the day before the accident, sources at the rail company Renfe said.
People fearing for their loved ones are still waiting for about half of the fatalities to be identified. Some of the bodies were so disfigured that identification was difficult.
Forensic experts called for DNA tests, while police examined the contents of suitcases strewn on the track to speed up the identification process.
Passengers included holidaymakers and pilgrims travelling to weekend festivities in Santiago de Compostela.
All of the carriages left the rails, the rear engine caught fire, and one of the wagons was hurled 15 metres. Wagons that were ripped open or smashed on top of each other were scattered around.
"We heard a noise, enormous, like never before. We went down there and saw that the convoy had split in two," said a witness.
One of the survivors, Raul Fariza, said he felt the train derail and then saw dozens of bodies on the floor, including that of his wife.
"The impact tore her scalp off and she was soaked in blood," though she was still alive, he told El Pais.
Local residents rushed to the site, bringing water and blankets and smashing wagon windows with stones to help those trapped inside.
Public administrations around Spain, including parliament, observed a moment of silence. King Juan Carlos said the accident filled him with pain and sadness. The king and Queen Sofia are visiting Santiago de Compostela to meet victims' families.
Spain has decreed three days of mourning, and messages of condolence were sent from all over the world.
The rail accident was the worst in Spain since 1972, when a collision between two trains claimed 86 lives near Seville. The worst train accident in the country's history killed up to 800 people in 1944.
Source : Sapa-dpa /sdv
Date : 25 Jul 2013 17:29
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Probe of Deadly Derailment Focuses on Train Speed
By all accounts, the train was going way too fast as it curled around a gentle bend. Then in an instant, one car tumbled off the track, followed by the rest of the locomotive, which seemed to come apart like a zipper being pulled.
The derailment sent pieces of the sleek train plowing across the ground in a ghastly jumble of smashed metal, dirt and smoke.
But two days after Spain suffered its deadliest rail disaster in decades - which killed 80 people and maimed scores of others - one question surpassed all others: Why was the train moving so fast?
An American passenger on the train told The Associated Press he saw a monitor screen inside his car clocking the speed at 194 kph (121 mph) just before the crash - more than double the 80 kph (50 mph) speed limit on the curve where it derailed.
Investigators opened a probe Thursday into possible failings by the 52-year-old driver and the train's internal speed-regulation systems.
Experts said one, or both, must be at fault for the disastrous Wednesday night crash of the train that was carrying 218 passengers and five crew members to Santiago de Compostela, a destination of Catholic pilgrimage preparing to celebrate its most revered saint.
Instead, this stunned city of nearly 100,000 converted its sports arena into a shelter for the dead and the grieving.
"All Spaniards feel the pain of the families," said Spain's head of state, King Juan Carlos, as he and Queen Sofia met hospitalized survivors of the crash 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) south of Santiago de Compostela. The royal couple dressed in funereal black.
"For a native of Santiago like me, this is the saddest day," said Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who toured the crash scene and declared a national three-day mourning period.
The regional government of Galicia, in northwest Spain, said 94 people remained hospitalized, 31 of them in critical condition, including four children. The U.S. State Department said one American died and at least five others were hurt but cautioned that those figures could be revised upward.
The American victim was identified by the Diocese of Arlington as Ana Maria Cordoba, an administrative employee from northern Virginia. She and her husband and daughter were traveling to visit her son, who had completed the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, according to Catholic News Service, a division of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Passenger Stephen Ward, an 18-year-old Mormon missionary from Utah, recalled seeing the 194 kph speed of the train when he looked up at the monitor showing it, then seconds later "the train lifted up up off the track. It was like a roller coaster."
He blacked out on impact and when he woke up, someone was helping him walk out of his train car and crawl out of a ditch where the train car came to rest. He thought he was dreaming for 30 seconds until he felt his blood-drenched face and noticed the scene around him.
"Everyone was covered in blood. There was smoke coming up off the train," he said. "There was a lot of crying, a lot of screaming."
Many victims suffered severe burns as the train's diesel fuel ignited a fire that caught some passengers trapped in mangled upside-down carriages. Emergency officials took DNA samples from the most heavily burned or the unconscious in an effort to identify both the living and the dead.
Rafael Catala, a senior transport official in Spain's Development Ministry, told radio network Cadena SER that the train appeared to be going much faster than the track's speed limit as it approached the city.
Breathtaking footage of the crash captured by a railway security camera showed the moment when the eight-carriage train approached a left bend beneath a road bridge at a seemingly impossible speed. An Associated Press analysis of the video indicated the train hit the bend going twice the speed limit or more.
Using the time stamp of the video and the estimated distance between two pylons, the AP calculated that the train was moving in a range of 144 to 192 kph (89 to 119 mph). Another estimate calculated on the basis of the typical distance between railroad ties indicated its speed was between 156 kph and 182 kph (96 to 112 mph).
The anonymously posted video footage, which the Spanish railway authority Adif said probably came from one of its cameras, shows the train carriages buckling and leaving the tracks soon into the turn.
Murray Hughes, consultant editor of Railway Gazette International, said a diesel-powered unit behind the lead locomotive appeared to derail first. The front engine quickly followed, violently tipping on to its right side as it crashed into a concrete wall and bulldozed along the ground.
In the background, the rear carriages could be seen starting to decouple and coming off the tracks. The picture went blank as the engine appeared to crash directly into the camera.
After impact, witnesses said, a fire engulfed passengers trapped in at least one carriage.
"I saw the train coming out of the bend at great speed and then there was a big noise," eyewitness Consuelo Domingues, who lives beside the train line, told The Associated Press. "Then everybody tried to get out of the train."
Other witnesses said nearby residents ran onto the tracks and worked to free survivors from the crumpled, flaming wreckage. Some were seen pounding rocks against windows, and one man wielded a pickaxe as survivors were pulled through shattered windows to safety.
Many aboard the train were Catholic pilgrims heading for Santiago de Compostela's internationally celebrated annual festival honoring St. James, a disciple of Jesus whose remains are said to rest in a church shrine. Since the Middle Ages, the city has been the destination for Christian faithful walking the mountainous El Camino de Santiago trail, or "The Way of St. James."
Santiago officials canceled Thursday's festivities and took control of the city's indoor basketball arena to use as a makeshift morgue. There, relatives of the dead could be seen sobbing and embracing each other.
The Interior Ministry ruled out terrorism as a cause.
While sections of the Spanish press pointed an accusatory finger at the train driver, government officials and railway experts cautioned that a fault in systems designed to keep trains at safe speeds could be to blame.
Jose Antonio Santamera, president of Spain's College of Civil Engineering, said one of the train's supposedly fail-safe mechanisms could have failed.
"The security system will detect any fault of the driver, (for example) if he has suffered a blackout and does not answer calls, and then starts the train's security systems. So I almost rule out human error," Santamera said.
He said the crash happened at a point where one speed-regulating system gave way to another, suggesting a possible failure at the handover point.
Spain's lead investigator in the crash, Judge Vazquez Tain, ordered detectives to question the train driver.
Train company Renfe identified the driver, Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, as a 30-year employee of the state rail company who became an assistant driver in 2000 and a fully qualified driver in 2003. The company said Amo took control of the train from a second driver about 100 kilometers (65 miles) south of Santiago de Compostela.
Renfe's president, Julio Gomez-Pomar Rodriguez, told Spain's Cadena Cope radio network that the driver had worked on that route for more than one year.
It was Spain's deadliest train accident since 1972, when a train collided with a stationary carriage in southwest Spain, killing 86 people and injuring 112.
"July 24 will no longer be the eve of a day of celebration but rather one commemorating one of the saddest days in the history of Galicia," said Alberto Nunez Feijoo, regional president of Galicia. Santiago de Compostela is its capital.
Passenger Sergio Prego told Cadena Ser the train "traveled very fast" just before it derailed and the cars flipped upside down, on their sides and into the air.
"I've been very lucky because I'm one of the few able to walk out," Prego said.
The Alvia 730 series train started from Madrid and was scheduled to end its journey at El Ferrol, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Santiago de Compostela. Alvia operates high-speed services, but they do not go as fast as Spain's fastest bullet trains, called AVEs.
The maximum Alvia speed is 250 kph (155 mph) on tracks made especially for the AVEs, and they travel at a maximum speed of 220 kph (137 mph) on normal-gauge rails.
Other Spanish train calamities include a 1944 accident involving three trains that crashed in a tunnel. That disaster produced wildly disputed death tolls ranging from the government's official count of 78 to researchers' later estimated tolls exceeding 500.
In 2006, 43 people died when a subway train crashed because of excessive speed in the southern city of Valencia.
In 2004, 191 died when al-Qaida-inspired terrorists detonated 10 bombs on four Madrid commuter trains.
Source : Sapa-AP /nsm
Date : 26 Jul 2013 10:44
By all accounts, the train was going way too fast as it curled around a gentle bend. Then in an instant, one car tumbled off the track, followed by the rest of the locomotive, which seemed to come apart like a zipper being pulled.
The derailment sent pieces of the sleek train plowing across the ground in a ghastly jumble of smashed metal, dirt and smoke.
But two days after Spain suffered its deadliest rail disaster in decades - which killed 80 people and maimed scores of others - one question surpassed all others: Why was the train moving so fast?
An American passenger on the train told The Associated Press he saw a monitor screen inside his car clocking the speed at 194 kph (121 mph) just before the crash - more than double the 80 kph (50 mph) speed limit on the curve where it derailed.
Investigators opened a probe Thursday into possible failings by the 52-year-old driver and the train's internal speed-regulation systems.
Experts said one, or both, must be at fault for the disastrous Wednesday night crash of the train that was carrying 218 passengers and five crew members to Santiago de Compostela, a destination of Catholic pilgrimage preparing to celebrate its most revered saint.
Instead, this stunned city of nearly 100,000 converted its sports arena into a shelter for the dead and the grieving.
"All Spaniards feel the pain of the families," said Spain's head of state, King Juan Carlos, as he and Queen Sofia met hospitalized survivors of the crash 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) south of Santiago de Compostela. The royal couple dressed in funereal black.
"For a native of Santiago like me, this is the saddest day," said Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who toured the crash scene and declared a national three-day mourning period.
The regional government of Galicia, in northwest Spain, said 94 people remained hospitalized, 31 of them in critical condition, including four children. The U.S. State Department said one American died and at least five others were hurt but cautioned that those figures could be revised upward.
The American victim was identified by the Diocese of Arlington as Ana Maria Cordoba, an administrative employee from northern Virginia. She and her husband and daughter were traveling to visit her son, who had completed the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, according to Catholic News Service, a division of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Passenger Stephen Ward, an 18-year-old Mormon missionary from Utah, recalled seeing the 194 kph speed of the train when he looked up at the monitor showing it, then seconds later "the train lifted up up off the track. It was like a roller coaster."
He blacked out on impact and when he woke up, someone was helping him walk out of his train car and crawl out of a ditch where the train car came to rest. He thought he was dreaming for 30 seconds until he felt his blood-drenched face and noticed the scene around him.
"Everyone was covered in blood. There was smoke coming up off the train," he said. "There was a lot of crying, a lot of screaming."
Many victims suffered severe burns as the train's diesel fuel ignited a fire that caught some passengers trapped in mangled upside-down carriages. Emergency officials took DNA samples from the most heavily burned or the unconscious in an effort to identify both the living and the dead.
Rafael Catala, a senior transport official in Spain's Development Ministry, told radio network Cadena SER that the train appeared to be going much faster than the track's speed limit as it approached the city.
Breathtaking footage of the crash captured by a railway security camera showed the moment when the eight-carriage train approached a left bend beneath a road bridge at a seemingly impossible speed. An Associated Press analysis of the video indicated the train hit the bend going twice the speed limit or more.
Using the time stamp of the video and the estimated distance between two pylons, the AP calculated that the train was moving in a range of 144 to 192 kph (89 to 119 mph). Another estimate calculated on the basis of the typical distance between railroad ties indicated its speed was between 156 kph and 182 kph (96 to 112 mph).
The anonymously posted video footage, which the Spanish railway authority Adif said probably came from one of its cameras, shows the train carriages buckling and leaving the tracks soon into the turn.
Murray Hughes, consultant editor of Railway Gazette International, said a diesel-powered unit behind the lead locomotive appeared to derail first. The front engine quickly followed, violently tipping on to its right side as it crashed into a concrete wall and bulldozed along the ground.
In the background, the rear carriages could be seen starting to decouple and coming off the tracks. The picture went blank as the engine appeared to crash directly into the camera.
After impact, witnesses said, a fire engulfed passengers trapped in at least one carriage.
"I saw the train coming out of the bend at great speed and then there was a big noise," eyewitness Consuelo Domingues, who lives beside the train line, told The Associated Press. "Then everybody tried to get out of the train."
Other witnesses said nearby residents ran onto the tracks and worked to free survivors from the crumpled, flaming wreckage. Some were seen pounding rocks against windows, and one man wielded a pickaxe as survivors were pulled through shattered windows to safety.
Many aboard the train were Catholic pilgrims heading for Santiago de Compostela's internationally celebrated annual festival honoring St. James, a disciple of Jesus whose remains are said to rest in a church shrine. Since the Middle Ages, the city has been the destination for Christian faithful walking the mountainous El Camino de Santiago trail, or "The Way of St. James."
Santiago officials canceled Thursday's festivities and took control of the city's indoor basketball arena to use as a makeshift morgue. There, relatives of the dead could be seen sobbing and embracing each other.
The Interior Ministry ruled out terrorism as a cause.
While sections of the Spanish press pointed an accusatory finger at the train driver, government officials and railway experts cautioned that a fault in systems designed to keep trains at safe speeds could be to blame.
Jose Antonio Santamera, president of Spain's College of Civil Engineering, said one of the train's supposedly fail-safe mechanisms could have failed.
"The security system will detect any fault of the driver, (for example) if he has suffered a blackout and does not answer calls, and then starts the train's security systems. So I almost rule out human error," Santamera said.
He said the crash happened at a point where one speed-regulating system gave way to another, suggesting a possible failure at the handover point.
Spain's lead investigator in the crash, Judge Vazquez Tain, ordered detectives to question the train driver.
Train company Renfe identified the driver, Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, as a 30-year employee of the state rail company who became an assistant driver in 2000 and a fully qualified driver in 2003. The company said Amo took control of the train from a second driver about 100 kilometers (65 miles) south of Santiago de Compostela.
Renfe's president, Julio Gomez-Pomar Rodriguez, told Spain's Cadena Cope radio network that the driver had worked on that route for more than one year.
It was Spain's deadliest train accident since 1972, when a train collided with a stationary carriage in southwest Spain, killing 86 people and injuring 112.
"July 24 will no longer be the eve of a day of celebration but rather one commemorating one of the saddest days in the history of Galicia," said Alberto Nunez Feijoo, regional president of Galicia. Santiago de Compostela is its capital.
Passenger Sergio Prego told Cadena Ser the train "traveled very fast" just before it derailed and the cars flipped upside down, on their sides and into the air.
"I've been very lucky because I'm one of the few able to walk out," Prego said.
The Alvia 730 series train started from Madrid and was scheduled to end its journey at El Ferrol, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Santiago de Compostela. Alvia operates high-speed services, but they do not go as fast as Spain's fastest bullet trains, called AVEs.
The maximum Alvia speed is 250 kph (155 mph) on tracks made especially for the AVEs, and they travel at a maximum speed of 220 kph (137 mph) on normal-gauge rails.
Other Spanish train calamities include a 1944 accident involving three trains that crashed in a tunnel. That disaster produced wildly disputed death tolls ranging from the government's official count of 78 to researchers' later estimated tolls exceeding 500.
In 2006, 43 people died when a subway train crashed because of excessive speed in the southern city of Valencia.
In 2004, 191 died when al-Qaida-inspired terrorists detonated 10 bombs on four Madrid commuter trains.
Source : Sapa-AP /nsm
Date : 26 Jul 2013 10:44
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Train Driver in Court, Charged, as Spain Mourns Crash Victims
The driver of a train that hurtled off the rails killing 79 people in Spain appeared in court for questioning on Sunday, as the pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela mourned the dead.
Flowers and candles were placed at the crash site and at the gates of the city's cathedral, a year-round destination for Roman Catholic pilgrims.
Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, the 52-year-old driver, arrived at the courthouse for the closed hearing in a police car wearing a blue shirt and hancuffs after spending the night in the northwestern city's central police station.
Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz told reporters on Saturday that Garzon Amo was detained on suspicion of reckless homicide over Spain's deadliest rail accident since 1944.
The judge will decide whether to press formal charges, court officials said.
The train was reported to have been travelling at more than twice the speed limit on a bend when it tore off the rails on Wednesday and slammed into a concrete wall.
A passenger who was critically injured in the crash died in hospital, health officials said Sunday, bringing the toll to 79, including eight foreigners.
"We are really feeling the impact. People are praying. It is a great tragedy," said Marlen de Francisco, a woman of 70 who sells souvenirs in the cathedral square.
"All day people are asking me for note paper so they can write messages and put them on the cathedral gates."
A memorial service is scheduled to be held in Santiago de Compostela on Monday.
Forensics police on Saturday identified the last three victims, including that of 35-year-old French veterinarian Jean-Baptiste Loirat who became a father last month.
"He was a very happy young father, adorable, very loving and family oriented," his aunt Marie-Anne Loirat told AFP in his hometown of Nantes in western France.
The president of the Spanish rail network administrator ADIF, Gonzalo Ferre, said Garzon had been warned to start slowing the train "four kilometres before the accident happened".
El Pais newspaper, citing investigation sources, reported that he told railway officials by radio that the train had taken the curve at 190 kilometres (118 miles) an hour -- more than double the 80 kph speed limit for that section of track.
A resident who rushed to the scene said in a television interview broadcast Sunday that the driver told him minutes after the crash he had been unable to brake.
"He said he had to brake to 80 and couldn't, that he was going fast," Evaristo Iglesias, who along with another man accompanied the driver to a stretch of flat land where other injured people were being laid out after the accident, told Antena 3.
"He kept saying 'I want to die! I want to die! I don't want to see this!".
State railway company Renfe said the driver had been with the firm for 30 years, including 13 years as a driver, and had driven trains past the spot of the accident 60 times.
El Mundo newspaper on Sunday printed extracts from the train's route plan, indicating that ahead of the bend the train passed from a stretch of track with a speed limit of 220 kph to one with a limit of 80 kph.
The newspaper said it was "surprising" that it was left entirely up to the driver exactly when to brake as the train entered the curve.
Carla Serrano, a young woman who survived the crash with minor injuries, told Spanish public television that seconds before the crash the display panel in her carriage showed the train was travelling at 200 kph.
Some media reports described Garzon Amo as a speed freak who once posted a picture on his Facebook page of a train speedometer at 200 kph.
Renfe said the train had no technical problems and had just passed an inspection on the morning of the accident.
But the secretary general of Spain's train drivers' union, Juan Jesus Garcia Fraile, told public radio the track was not equipped with braking technology that would slow the train down automatically if the driver failed to do so when required.
Many of the passengers were said to be on their way to a festival in honour of Saint James, the apostle who gave his name to Santiago de Compostela.
"As a believer, I wonder how Saint James can have allowed this to happen," said Pedro, a grey-bearded pilgrim from Cantabria in northern Spain, wearing a cape and using a walking stick.
Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 28 Jul 2013 19:37
The driver of a train that hurtled off the rails killing 79 people in Spain appeared in court for questioning on Sunday, as the pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela mourned the dead.
Flowers and candles were placed at the crash site and at the gates of the city's cathedral, a year-round destination for Roman Catholic pilgrims.
Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, the 52-year-old driver, arrived at the courthouse for the closed hearing in a police car wearing a blue shirt and hancuffs after spending the night in the northwestern city's central police station.
Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz told reporters on Saturday that Garzon Amo was detained on suspicion of reckless homicide over Spain's deadliest rail accident since 1944.
The judge will decide whether to press formal charges, court officials said.
The train was reported to have been travelling at more than twice the speed limit on a bend when it tore off the rails on Wednesday and slammed into a concrete wall.
A passenger who was critically injured in the crash died in hospital, health officials said Sunday, bringing the toll to 79, including eight foreigners.
"We are really feeling the impact. People are praying. It is a great tragedy," said Marlen de Francisco, a woman of 70 who sells souvenirs in the cathedral square.
"All day people are asking me for note paper so they can write messages and put them on the cathedral gates."
A memorial service is scheduled to be held in Santiago de Compostela on Monday.
Forensics police on Saturday identified the last three victims, including that of 35-year-old French veterinarian Jean-Baptiste Loirat who became a father last month.
"He was a very happy young father, adorable, very loving and family oriented," his aunt Marie-Anne Loirat told AFP in his hometown of Nantes in western France.
The president of the Spanish rail network administrator ADIF, Gonzalo Ferre, said Garzon had been warned to start slowing the train "four kilometres before the accident happened".
El Pais newspaper, citing investigation sources, reported that he told railway officials by radio that the train had taken the curve at 190 kilometres (118 miles) an hour -- more than double the 80 kph speed limit for that section of track.
A resident who rushed to the scene said in a television interview broadcast Sunday that the driver told him minutes after the crash he had been unable to brake.
"He said he had to brake to 80 and couldn't, that he was going fast," Evaristo Iglesias, who along with another man accompanied the driver to a stretch of flat land where other injured people were being laid out after the accident, told Antena 3.
"He kept saying 'I want to die! I want to die! I don't want to see this!".
State railway company Renfe said the driver had been with the firm for 30 years, including 13 years as a driver, and had driven trains past the spot of the accident 60 times.
El Mundo newspaper on Sunday printed extracts from the train's route plan, indicating that ahead of the bend the train passed from a stretch of track with a speed limit of 220 kph to one with a limit of 80 kph.
The newspaper said it was "surprising" that it was left entirely up to the driver exactly when to brake as the train entered the curve.
Carla Serrano, a young woman who survived the crash with minor injuries, told Spanish public television that seconds before the crash the display panel in her carriage showed the train was travelling at 200 kph.
Some media reports described Garzon Amo as a speed freak who once posted a picture on his Facebook page of a train speedometer at 200 kph.
Renfe said the train had no technical problems and had just passed an inspection on the morning of the accident.
But the secretary general of Spain's train drivers' union, Juan Jesus Garcia Fraile, told public radio the track was not equipped with braking technology that would slow the train down automatically if the driver failed to do so when required.
Many of the passengers were said to be on their way to a festival in honour of Saint James, the apostle who gave his name to Santiago de Compostela.
"As a believer, I wonder how Saint James can have allowed this to happen," said Pedro, a grey-bearded pilgrim from Cantabria in northern Spain, wearing a cape and using a walking stick.
Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 28 Jul 2013 19:37
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Train Derailed at 153 Km/h
A train that derailed in Spain killing 79 people was traveling at 153 kilometres per hour (95 miles per hour) at the time of the accident, a court said Tuesday after analyzing the train's data recorders.
Moments before the accident the train was traveling at a speed of 192 kilometres an hour, the court said in a statement, while the speed limit at the spot where the train derailed was set at 80 kilometres an hour.
Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 30 Jul 2013 18:18
A train that derailed in Spain killing 79 people was traveling at 153 kilometres per hour (95 miles per hour) at the time of the accident, a court said Tuesday after analyzing the train's data recorders.
Moments before the accident the train was traveling at a speed of 192 kilometres an hour, the court said in a statement, while the speed limit at the spot where the train derailed was set at 80 kilometres an hour.
Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 30 Jul 2013 18:18
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Driver was on phone at time of crash
The driver of a train that derailed in Spain killing 79 people was on the phone to a coworker at the time of the accident, while the train was racing at nearly twice the speed limit, investigators said Tuesday.
The train's two data recording "black boxes" showed that moments before the crash the train was travelling at 192 kilometres (119 miles) per hour, said the Superior Court of Justice of Galicia, which is leading the investigation.
"Seconds before the accident the brakes were activated. It is estimated that at the time of the derailment the train was travelling at 153 kilometres an hour," it said in a statement.
The speed limit at the spot where the Madrid to Ferrol train derailed on Wednesday on the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela is 80 kilometres an hour.
The driver of the train was speaking on his work phone to staff members of state railway company Renfe and appeared to consult a map at the time of the accident, the court added.
"Minutes before the train came off the tracks he received a call on his work phone to get indications on the route he had to take to get to Ferrol. From the content of the conversation and background noise it seems that the driver consulted a map or paper document," it said.
The eight-carriage train flew off the tracks on a bend and ploughed into a concrete siding about four kilometres (2.5 miles) from Santiago in northwest Spain.
A US woman critically injured in the crash died in hospital on Sunday, bringing the toll to 79 including nine foreigners. It was Spain's deadliest train accident in decades.
Examining judge Luis Alaez on Sunday charged the driver, Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, with 79 counts of reckless homicide and released him under court supervision.
Garzon, 52, admitted during his court appearance Sunday that he had had a "lapse" of concentration, Spanish media have reported.
Several newspapers said the driver told the judge he had confused the stretch of track he was on at the time of the accident with another part of the route.
"He believed he was on a different section of the track and when he started to slow down it was too late to keep control of the train," El Pais wrote.
Garzon had been warned to start slowing the train four kilometres before the spot where the accident happened, the president of state railway track operator Adif said last week.
Adif is checking all tracks and security systems in its network in the wake of the accident, a company spokeswoman said.
"This is a precautionary measure. After what happened, the protocol is to review all systems to confirm that everything is working properly," she said.
The train was on a route that uses both high-speed and conventional track. On the high-speed sections a sophisticated security system automatically slows down trains that are going too fact.
The accident happened on a conventional section of the track where it is up to the driver to respond to prompts to slow down.
Renfe has said Garzon had been with the firm for 30 years, including 13 years as a driver, and had driven trains past the spot of the accident 60 times.
The train had no technical problems and had just passed an inspection on the morning of the accident, Renfe said.
Hundreds of mourners attended a memorial mass for the victims on Monday in the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela which was broadcast live on Spanish television.
After the service Crown Prince Felipe and other members of the royal family went from row to row in the cathedral, clasping the hands of the bereaved or kissing them on the cheeks.
Many aboard the train were Catholic pilgrims heading for Santiago de Compostela's internationally celebrated annual festival honouring Saint James, a disciple of Jesus whose bones are said to rest in a crypt beneath the altar of the city's cathedral.
Source : Sapa-AFP /mom
Date : 30 Jul 2013 20:08
The driver of a train that derailed in Spain killing 79 people was on the phone to a coworker at the time of the accident, while the train was racing at nearly twice the speed limit, investigators said Tuesday.
The train's two data recording "black boxes" showed that moments before the crash the train was travelling at 192 kilometres (119 miles) per hour, said the Superior Court of Justice of Galicia, which is leading the investigation.
"Seconds before the accident the brakes were activated. It is estimated that at the time of the derailment the train was travelling at 153 kilometres an hour," it said in a statement.
The speed limit at the spot where the Madrid to Ferrol train derailed on Wednesday on the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela is 80 kilometres an hour.
The driver of the train was speaking on his work phone to staff members of state railway company Renfe and appeared to consult a map at the time of the accident, the court added.
"Minutes before the train came off the tracks he received a call on his work phone to get indications on the route he had to take to get to Ferrol. From the content of the conversation and background noise it seems that the driver consulted a map or paper document," it said.
The eight-carriage train flew off the tracks on a bend and ploughed into a concrete siding about four kilometres (2.5 miles) from Santiago in northwest Spain.
A US woman critically injured in the crash died in hospital on Sunday, bringing the toll to 79 including nine foreigners. It was Spain's deadliest train accident in decades.
Examining judge Luis Alaez on Sunday charged the driver, Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, with 79 counts of reckless homicide and released him under court supervision.
Garzon, 52, admitted during his court appearance Sunday that he had had a "lapse" of concentration, Spanish media have reported.
Several newspapers said the driver told the judge he had confused the stretch of track he was on at the time of the accident with another part of the route.
"He believed he was on a different section of the track and when he started to slow down it was too late to keep control of the train," El Pais wrote.
Garzon had been warned to start slowing the train four kilometres before the spot where the accident happened, the president of state railway track operator Adif said last week.
Adif is checking all tracks and security systems in its network in the wake of the accident, a company spokeswoman said.
"This is a precautionary measure. After what happened, the protocol is to review all systems to confirm that everything is working properly," she said.
The train was on a route that uses both high-speed and conventional track. On the high-speed sections a sophisticated security system automatically slows down trains that are going too fact.
The accident happened on a conventional section of the track where it is up to the driver to respond to prompts to slow down.
Renfe has said Garzon had been with the firm for 30 years, including 13 years as a driver, and had driven trains past the spot of the accident 60 times.
The train had no technical problems and had just passed an inspection on the morning of the accident, Renfe said.
Hundreds of mourners attended a memorial mass for the victims on Monday in the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela which was broadcast live on Spanish television.
After the service Crown Prince Felipe and other members of the royal family went from row to row in the cathedral, clasping the hands of the bereaved or kissing them on the cheeks.
Many aboard the train were Catholic pilgrims heading for Santiago de Compostela's internationally celebrated annual festival honouring Saint James, a disciple of Jesus whose bones are said to rest in a crypt beneath the altar of the city's cathedral.
Source : Sapa-AFP /mom
Date : 30 Jul 2013 20:08