Source: Alvia accident, the railway tragedy that mourned the…
Found on: 2022-10-05 09:44:00
A human error either structural security deficiencies in the layout as the main cause of a tragedy that stained the Galician roads with blood and shocked an entire country. The trial for the Alvia accident, which started this Wednesday in Santiago de Compostela, must settle responsibilities in what has been the worst train accident in Spain in recent times. On the bench of the accused nine years after that fateful day, two people: the driver and the former security director of Adif.
Eighty people lost their lives and more than a hundred were injured of varying severity in Angrois on July 24, 2013. An Alvia train, which covered the route between Madrid and Ferrol, derailed in the curve known as A Grandeira, a few three kilometers from Santiago de Compostela station. The first fatal accident in Spain on the High Speed line turned the lives of more than 200 families upside down. That same sad day, the train driver acknowledged having traveled at 190 kilometers per hour in a section limited to eighty.
The crash site became a true ground zero worthy of the worst catastrophe, and care for families and victims was a priority for both Renfe as for the competent administrations. «I derailed, what am I going to do, what am I going to do» he acknowledged in a telephone communication just after the tragic collision Francisco Jose Garzon Amothe driver who since Wednesday sits on the bench of the accused.
However, the operator has stated on several occasions that he feels “responsible” “but not guilty” of the fatal train accident in Galicia. «If I have to pay, I pay, but let more people pay», He came to declare a few years ago in a television interview. On that occasion he acknowledged his share of responsibility in the incident, but stated that “others failed before”, being the “last link” in the chain. I can’t fail but I’m human. At all times the first thing I thought was to protect the train.
Seven days of national mourning followed the train accident in Galicia that upset the entire country. The other defendant for what happened, the former security director of Adif, Andres Cortabitarte, has accessed through a back door to the building in which the trial for the Alvia accident has been taking place since this Wednesday. Unlike the driver, who has argued that there were no safety signs at the black point, he has not come across a group of relatives of victims who demanded justice in the same venue where the responsibilities of a fateful day on the Spanish roads are settled.