The driver of the Spanish train that derailed last week, killing dozens of passengers, had received three warning signals after taking a phone call minutes before the fatal accident, an examination of the black box showed today.
Ticket inspector Antonio Martin, on the same train, had rung driver Francisco José Garzón to discuss what platform the train would use at a station further down the line, the driver told an investigating judge in an earlier hearing.
The train derailed killing 79 people on the outskirts of the ancient northwestern town of Santiago de Compostela last week in one of Spain’s worst rail disasters. Mr Garzón (52) appeared to take the train too fast through a tight curve.
The driver has been charged with negligent homicide but has been released without bail pending trial.
Garzon took the call at 20.39 local time (18.39 GMT) when the train was going 199km per hour (124mph), details from the black box released today showed. The call lasted less than two minutes and ended 11 seconds before the train came off the rails, the black box details showed.
The driver braked at 20.40 when the train was travelling at 195km per hour instead of the speed limit of 80kph on that stretch of track, but it was too late.
Warning signals sounded at 20.39, 20.40 and 20.41, but it was not clear from the black box transcripts released by the court whether they were to reduce speed. Spanish state television said today the first signal indicated a green light on the track.
The investigating judge said on Thursday it was unfortunate that the call was made when it was but it was not sufficient cause to criminally charge the ticket inspector. – (Reuters)