Galicia rail tragedy: Inspector says up-to-date braking system would have prevented train crash which killed 79 passengers
Friday, April 25, 2014 @ 7:50 PM
AN INVESTIGATOR working on the Galicia train tragedy case claims the accident which killed 79 people would not have happened if the modern braking system – axed when the line was built to save money – had been used.
César Mariñas Dávila, one of the three consultant engineers employed by judge Luis Aláez to prepare a report on the fatal derailment of July 24 last year says the changes to the original plans for the high-speed Alvia line were the main cause of the crash.
From the train's departure station – Madrid's Atocha – through to just before the cathedral city of Santiago de Compostela, the line is fitted with the modern European-standard ERTMS braking system which automatically slows the train down if there is no reaction from the driver as the high-speed track changes to the regional line.
Speed limits drop from 220 kilometres per hour to 80 kilometres per hour when the fast-track line gives way to the regional link, which in the case of the connection from Madrid to the north-westernmost city of Ferrol on the Galicia coast, starts about 500 metres south of the village of Angrois, where the crash happened.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com