Driver in deadly Spain train crash probed
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA —Spanish police were waiting on Friday to question one of the drivers of a train that derailed, killing at least 80 passengers, amid media reports it was traveling at twice the speed limit.
The driver, lightly injured, “would be questioned by police in the hospital where he has been placed under surveillance,” the High Court in Galicia said in a statement on Thursday.
The investigating magistrate in the case had not ordered his detention, the statement added.
“The judge has asked police to take his statement,” in the presence of a lawyer, a court spokesperson said. After that, he will have to give his account before the magistrate, she added.
A police source said they had originally expected to question him on Thursday.
Renfe, the state railway company, has said it is too early to determine the cause of the tragedy.
But secretary of state for transport Rafael Catala told radio station Cadena Ser that the early signs suggested the crash had been caused by the train going too fast.
According to several media reports, the train was going at twice the speed limit when it crashed near the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela late Wednesday.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a native of the city, announced the launch of two probes into the accident and declared three days of national mourning.
A local government official in the Galicia region said there were 80 confirmed dead, making it the deadliest rail accident since 1944 when hundreds were killed in a train collision, also between Madrid and Galicia.
Regional health minister Rocio Mosquera said another 178 had been injured, including 94 who remain in hospital—and warned that the death toll could rise.
Thirty-two of the injured were in critical condition, including four children.
The US Department of State confirmed that at least one of its citizens had died and five others had been injured in the crash.
President Barack Obama was “shocked and saddened” over the “tragic train derailment,” he said in a statement.
Renfe had said there were 218 passengers and four crew on the train, but the casualty toll provided by the regional government indicated there were over 250 people on board.
The train flew off the tracks and flipped onto its side as it was traveling from Madrid to the port town of Ferrol, with carriages slamming into each other as it approached the pilgrimage center of Santiago de Compostela.
Smoke still billowed from the wreckage of mangled steel and smashed windows on Thursday as bodies were laid out under blankets along the tracks.
King Juan Carlos called off public engagements to visit victims in the hospital where most of the injured are being treated.