Driver of doomed train faces charges

SANTIAGODECOMPOSTELA,SPAIN: The driver of a train that hurtled off the rails killing 78 people in Spain faces possible charges of reckless homicide.

Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, 52, refused to answer police questions on Friday from his hospital bed, and the case was passed to the courts.

He was taken to a police station on Saturday after being discharged from hospital and was to appear yesterday before a judge who will decide whether to press formal charges.

Under Spanish law, a suspect can be detained for a maximum of 72 hours before being heard by a judge.

Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said on Saturday that Mr Garzon Amo faced possible charges of reckless homicide. He was speaking during a visit to the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela where the crash happened.

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

Regional authorities now say that 78 passengers died and 178 were injured in the accident. It was Spain’s deadliest rail accident since 1944.

Regional health officials said 71 people were still in hospital, including 28 adults and three children in a critical condition.

Eight foreigners were among the dead — a US citizen, an Algerian, a Mexican, a Brazilian, a Venezuelan, an Italian, a national of the Dominican Republic and a Frenchman.

The driver should have started slowing the train before reaching a bend that train drivers had been told to respect, the president of Spanish rail network administrator Adif said on Saturday.

‘‘Four kilometres before the accident happened he already had warnings that he had to begin slowing his speed,’’ Mr Gonzalo Ferre said.