Sunday Times 2
Driver in Spain train disaster faces charges as country mourns
View(s):SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain / Galicia, July 27 (AFP) -The driver of a train that hurtled off the rails killing 78 people in Spain faced possible charges as doctors worked today to identify the last three victims of the country’s worst rail disaster in decades.
As Spain mourned, the city of Santiago de Compostela where the crash struck prepared a funeral for Monday in its cathedral, a destination for Catholic pilgrims from around the world.
Police have accused the driver, identified by media as Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, 52, of “recklessness” in Wednesday night’s devastating crash. They said late Friday that he refused to answer their questions in his hospital bed and the case has been passed to the courts.
The train was said to have been travelling at more than twice the speed limit when it hurtled off the rails and slammed into a concrete wall, with one carriage leaping up onto a siding. Smoke billowed from the gutted cars as bodies were strewn across the tracks. Locals said they came running from their houses to drag passengers from the wreckage.
The grey-haired driver, who reportedly boasted of his love for speed online, was under police surveillance in hospital, said Jaime Iglesias, police chief in the northwestern Galicia region. The driver faces criminal accusations including “recklessness”, Iglesias told a news conference, but has not yet been charged.
A police spokesman later told AFP that the driver had refused to respond to police questioning on Friday and the courts would now decide on judicial action. Spanish media published photographs of the man they identified as Garzon after the crash, with blood covering the right side of his face.
Leading Spanish newspaper El Pais said the driver of the train had been unable to brake in time. Seventy-eight passengers perished, three of whom have yet to be identified, and 178 were injured, regional authorities said
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