The driver of a Spanish train that crashed, killing 80 people will be subjected to a police probe Friday, according to recent updates about the tragic incident.
On Wednesday night, a speeding eight-carriage train derailed, hit a wall and caught fire just outside the pilgrimage destination, Santiago de Compostela in north western Spain. About 80 people were killed in the accident. The Police is still trying to identify 13 of the bodies. The regional government confirmed 95 people being admitted in the hospital with about 32 of them, including four children, in critical condition. The train had 247 people on board.
The accident occurred a day prior to the festivities in Santiago, Europe's biggest Christian festivals. The festivals were cancelled due to the tragedy. People visiting for the festival went to the accident site of the wreck instead.
"My brother-in-law lives close by and was helping pull out people, dead and alive, all night. He's very shaken. I've come now with some friends just to see how it all ends," Reuters quoted Manuel Garcia, one of the onlookers as saying.
According to a Bloomberg report, the accident is said to be the worst European rail disasters in the last 40 years.
Local reports suggested that the train entered the bend at 190 km per hour (120 mph), when the speed limit on the curve was 80 km per hour (50 mph). The impact sent one carriage flying several meters into the air, finally landing on the other side of a concrete barrier. Bodies were strewn next to the tracks in the aftermath.
"We heard a massive noise and we went down the tracks. I helped get a few injured and bodies out of the train. I went into one of the cars but I'd rather not tell you what I saw there," Ricardo Martinez, a 47-year old baker from Santiago de Compostela, told CNN.
Investigators are still looking into why security devices to keep speed within permitted limits had not slowed the train down.
A judge in Santiago de Compostela, capital of the northern Spanish region of Galicia has been assigned the investigation of the accident. He has ordered police to question the train's driver, identified, Francisco Jose Garzon. The probe is scheduled to take place Friday.
Below is a video footage of the crash from a security camera.
