Claire Wilson
THE judge investigating the high-speed train crash on the Galician coast has named 22 rail infrastructure personnel as suspects.
Judge Luis Alaez has asked Adif officials, including the three most recent presidents, to come in for questioning as suspects between October 9 and December 11.
Board members and senior managers in charge of safety have also been called in for questioning.
A court statement said these officials, and possibly others from Adif, will be treated as suspects while the judge tried to determine whether the track was safe.
The driver of the train has already admitted to driving too fast when the crash occurred on July 24, and has been provisionally charged with multiple counts negligent homicides.
Someone made the decision not to put compulsory speed inhibitors on this stretch of line, and it is those persons who now need to be identified and questioned. Ultimately, human error by the driver caused this accident, but it was also a massive human error by the engineers to allow this notorious and badly designed stretch of line to be so vulnerable to future potential human errors. Just one such error has now caused this massive loss of life, and it could have been avoided.
quite right.
In this day and age, no ‘driver’ should have the lives of hundreds of people in their hand. (while having a mobile or cig or whatever in the other)
Agreed but one thing I haven’t noticed is comment on the second driver? Maybe he was also on the phone or just catching up on some sleep.
Obeying rules is not normal here. Did you notice the bus driver caught on his Mobile whilst in motion with a movie taken recently by one of his passengers?
One of the Adif train officials was arrested on Tuesday I understand.
As David says, Spain does have some cultural issue with rules and regulations. I was reminded of this when queueing for a bus in Malaga yesterday – it was just a free for all with people just shoving and pushing to get in, despite there being people waiting in line for for half an hour beforehand and a visible queue. I think this sort of attitude permeates Spanish life and is very evident i.e. the me-me-me culture.