I want to die, said train driver in crash wreckage
THE train driver being blamed for the Spanish rail crash radioed colleagues moments after the tragedy to admit: ‘I have f***** it all up. I want to die,’ it has been reported.
Francisco Jose Garzon, 52, spoke out as he lay injured in his cab near scores of dead and wounded after speeding on a bend where his train derailed, killing 78 and injuring more than 130.
Yesterday, as pictures of him at the scene with blood streaming down his face emerged, he was under police guard in hospital while a judge prepared to quiz him.
Earlier reports of his radio conversations suggest that he has admitted driving at 190kmh round the bend, where the speed limit is 80kmh, in Santiago de Compostela, north-west Spain.
The death toll – put at 80 on Thursday – was revised to 78 after forensic teams ruled body parts i nitially thought to belong to different victims were from the same person.
Police formally arrested Garzon ‘on suspicion of a criminal act linked to causing the accident’.
Enraged Spaniards took to Twitter to call for his death while authorities tried to calm frayed tempers by insisting they still had not got to the bottom of Wednesday’s crash.
Safety experts claim that several factors could be to blame.
One Spaniard tweeted ‘Death to this man’, while Carlos Martinez, from Mexico, said: ‘ The Spanish government should apply the death penalty... but only after torturing him.’
It i s thought the driver – who boasted on Facebook last year about going 200kmh and his desire to set off police speed guns – faces manslaughter charges.
Yesterday, Garzon, who received nine stitches to the head, spoke to a l ocal paper f rom hospital on a mobile phone, and said: ‘ Imagine how I’m feeling. I can’t say anything at the moment.’
Colleagues have defended t he driver, who is separated and has no children. ‘He’s an excellent person, a really nice bloke,’ said one.
‘ Everyone’s t alking about him speeding but normally an accident is not just caused by one thing.’
Investigators have yet to open the black box to shed light on the crash, and say the judge who can authorise it is focusing on identifying victims.
The bodies of 60 people have been handed to their families, and the first funerals are expected on Monday.
At noon yesterday, 81 people were still in hospital, with 31, including three children, in a critical condition.
Officials said 69 of the injured were Spanish and the others came from Britain, Columbia, Peru and the US.
Among the fatalities was Laura de Juan, 23, from Pontevedra in Galicia, who died before she could be reunited with her chemistry student boyfriend. He was waiting for her at her home town railway station.
Elsewhere, architect Tomas Lopez lost his wife Elisa and his son Tomas, 21, but his daughter Laura, 14, survived.
Wednesday’s accident happened in a blind spot between two different safety systems which could have prevented the tragedy, Spanish daily El Mundo reported yesterday.
Rival El Pais claimed Garzon had admitted that a control panel alert had warned him to reduce his speed. It posed the question being asked over and over again around Spain: Why didn’t he brake?