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NY TIMES<\/p>\n
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain \u2014 The train driver did little to hide his taste for speed. He posted a photograph of a locomotive speedometer needle stuck at 200 kilometers, or about 125 miles, per hour on Facebook last year, boasting that the reading \u201chas not been tampered with\u201d and openly relishing the idea of racing past the authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine what a rush it would be traveling alongside the Civil Guard, and passing them so that their speed traps go off,\u201d he wrote, in all capitals. \u201cHehe, that would be quite a fine for Renfe, hehe,\u201d referring to his employer, the Spanish rail company.<\/p>\n
Now that train driver, Francisco Jos\u00e9 Garz\u00f3n Amo, a veteran with more than three decades of experience, is under investigation by a judge in connection with one of Europe\u2019s worst rail accidents in recent years.<\/p>\n
In a chilling video from a security camera, the passenger train he was driving rounded a curve at high speed on Wednesday night, tumbling violently off the track, slamming against a curved wall and piling up in a twisted wreck. Eighty people were killed.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Spanish news media reported that the driver had said the train\u2019s speed had been about 120 miles per hour, more than double the limit in the stretch of track where the train derailed. On the day of the wreck, he took over from another driver just 60 miles before the crash, according to Spanish news reports.<\/p>\n
The train was almost full, carrying more than 200 passengers and merrymakers returning to the region for a special holiday on Thursday. July 25 is the feast day for St. James the Apostle, the patron saint of Spain, who for centuries has inspired pilgrims to walk El Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James. The pilgrimage has had a burst of popularity in recent years, drawing walkers from around the world.<\/p>\n
After the crash, the city of Santiago de Compostela canceled its extensive celebration and the authorities urged people to donate blood. Thousands made a very different kind of pilgrimage to the site of the disaster, watching as rescuers used cranes and trucks to hoist the engines of the wrecked train. All \u2014 children, teenagers and older people \u2014 stood in funereal silence.<\/p>\n
Nearby, in a building where an information center had been set up, police officers kept the victims\u2019 families from the public eye. Some walked around the building in tears, hugging and comforting one another, while others grew frustrated waiting to see their loved ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, at 9.30 p.m., is when they allowed us to go and see our family member,\u201d said Mar\u00eda, a relative of a victim who did not want her full name used. \u201cTwenty-four hours waiting, in these conditions. That\u2019s too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most high-speed lines that are part of the European rail traffic system are covered by a GPS-based surveillance network that constantly monitors trains\u2019 speed and automatically brakes them at speed limits.<\/p>\n
Slower trains and trains crossing urban areas in Spain and other countries use a less intrusive system that warns the driver with sound and lights at excessive speeds, but does not automatically brake the train, according to Mar\u00eda Carmen Palao, a spokeswoman for Spain\u2019s ADIF rail infrastructure company.<\/p>\n
The accident, she said, took place two to three miles outside the station at Santiago de Compostela, in the \u201ctransition zone\u201d between the two systems. The wreck occurred on the Galicia line, run by the rail operator Renfe and opened in 2011.<\/p>\n
The train\u2019s driver survived the accident with light injuries and is under police guard, although he has not been formally arrested. He is \u201clucid and able to speak,\u201d said Carmen Prieto, a spokeswoman for the Spanish Development Ministry.<\/p>\n
The Spanish newspaper El Pa\u00eds reported that people at the train company said that alcohol had not been found in the driver\u2019s system, but the security video showing the train barreling into the turn and abruptly careening off the rails quickly raised concerns that he was traveling too fast.<\/p>\n
Even in his Facebook message, posted in 2012 but removed late Thursday morning, Mr. Garz\u00f3n elicited some astounded comments from friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cDude, you\u2019re going full speed, braaaaake,\u201d one commenter wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cChrist, you\u2019re doing 200km\/h,\u201d another said.<\/p>\n
Outpourings of sympathy for Wednesday\u2019s disaster came from all corners, including the White House. \u201cOn behalf of the American people, we offer our deepest sympathies and condolences,\u201d President Obama said in a statement. The State Department confirmed Thursday that one American died and five were injured in the accident.<\/p>\n
In a letter to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the president of the European Commission, Jos\u00e9 Manuel Barroso, said he was \u201cdeeply saddened\u201d by the accident. \u201cSuch a serious accident, with so many people dead and injured, is a tragedy for Spain and provokes such deep emotions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Rajoy, who was born in the region, visited the scene and declared three days of official mourning. King Juan Carlos and his wife, Sof\u00eda, also rushed to Santiago de Compostela.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the face of a tragedy such as just happened in Santiago de Compostela on the eve of its big day, I can only express my deepest sympathy as a Spaniard and a Galician,\u201d Mr. Rajoy said in a written statement.<\/p>\n
The eight-car train, which left Madrid at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, was traveling to the coast when it derailed around 8:44 p.m., according to the clock on the security video. Witnesses described the destruction as the dead were taken to a temporary morgue. \u201cThe road is full of cadavers,\u201d a radio reporter, Xaime L\u00f3pez, said on the station Cadena Ser. \u201cIt\u2019s striking: you almost can\u2019t even count them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The accident was Spain\u2019s worst train crash since 1972, when 86 people were killed in the southwest of the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NY TIMES SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain \u2014 The train driver did little to hide his taste for speed. He posted a photograph of a locomotive speedometer needle stuck at 200 kilometers, or about 125 miles, per hour on Facebook last year, boasting that the reading \u201chas not been tampered with\u201d and openly relishing the idea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,10,16,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-10","category-16","category-21"],"views":711,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}