Apr
25
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.
Just after the line changes, a sharp bend which train drivers have always said was dangerous – known as the A Grandeira curve – was where the Alvia derailed because it was travelling at over 180 kilometres per hour.
It is not clear to drivers exactly where the line changes, and the gap between the start of the regional track and the bend gives little time to brake safely – a feat which is nearly impossible if the driver overshoots the start of the smaller line.
The old-style ASFA braking system was employed when building the Alvia line in 2010 from just before the Angrois bend to Ferrol in order to save money.
But if the ERTMS system had been in place, it would have slowed down the train automatically in time before it hit the bend.
At the moment, the only person charged with the 79 deaths is the driver, José Garzón del Amo, but the court has left the door open to further investigations into whether extra safety measures would have needed to be in place to enable Sr Garzón del Amo to drop his speed by 140 kilometres per hour in such a short distance.
Judge Aláez is taking a line of inquiry based upon the accident not having been solely caused by the ‘negligence’ of one person, the driver.
Sr Garzón del Amo revealed to a colleague in Ourense, in Galicia that he had taken a call on his mobile from the train conductor just before the fatal crash, which may have caused him to fail to slow down in time or resulted in the ‘confusion’ the driver admitted to about where the regional line takes over from the high-speed track.
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