[Ammi]

At least 77 people died in Wednesday's train crash in the northern Spanish region of Galicia, a spokeswoman for Galicia's supreme court said.

Four died in hospital, the rest at the site of the accident, the spokeswoman said on Thursday morning, adding that the numbers were still provisional. Judges in Spain are responsible for recording deaths.

The crash occurred as the train approached the north-western Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela at 8.40pm. A further 131 people were reported injured in the accident, the worst in Spain for 40 years. Reports said about 20 were very seriously injured.

The death toll might rise further, a spokeswoman for the office of the central government in Galicia warned. One Briton was among the injured, the Foreign Office confirmed.

Rescue workers battled to free passengers trapped inside the carriages, several of which had overturned. Some caught fire. Bodies covered in blankets lay next to the overturned carriages as smoke billowed from the wreckage. Firemen clambered over the twisted metal trying to get survivors out of the windows.

"The scene is shocking, it's Dante-esque," the head of the Galicia region, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said in a radio interview

There were some 247 people on board the train, which was travelling from Madrid to the Galician port of Ferrol. The train jumped the tracks on what officials described as "a difficult curve" on the outskirts of Santiago. At least six carriages were derailed.

"The train started flipping over, over and over, and carriages ended up on top of others," one passenger said.

Another said: "It was going so quickly. It seems that on a curve the train started to twist, and the wagons piled up one on top of the other."

Passenger Ricardo Montesco told Cadena Ser radio station: "A lot of people were squashed on the bottom. We tried to squeeze out of the bottom of the wagons to get out and we realised the train was burning ... I was in the second wagon and there was fire ... I saw corpses."

One witness near the scene told the radio station she heard an explosion before seeing the derailed train.

El Pais newspaper cited sources close to the investigation as saying the train was travelling at more than twice the speed limit on a sharp curve. The recommended speed is 80km an hour (50mph), and sources suggest the train was travelling as fast as 180km an hour.

Both Renfe and state-owned Adif, which is in charge of the tracks, had opened an investigation into the cause of the derailment, Renfe said

An official source said no statement would be made on the cause of the crash until the black boxes of the train were examined, but it was most likely an accident.

"We are moving away from the hypothesis of sabotage or attack," he said.

One carriage was thrown five metres from the track and landed on the other side of a retaining wall beside a row of houses. Several carriages were almost completely destroyed.

Clinics in the city were overwhelmed with people flocking to give blood, while hotels organised free rooms for relatives. Madrid sent forensic scientists and hospital staff to the region on special flights.

Both drivers of the train were unhurt in the crash. One of them was reportedly seen wandering dazed among the dead saying: "I've derailed, what am I going to do, what am I going to do?" It is still not clear whether the apparent excessive speed was the result of human error or a technical fault.

Spain's national rail company, Renfe, admitted that the service was running five minutes late, fuelling the hypothesis that it was trying to make up time

The crash happened a day before Santiago's main festival, focused on St James. The apostle's shrine is the destination of the famous El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, followed by Christians since the middle ages. The traditional fiesta de Santiago was cancelled and the archbishop of Santiago, Julián Barrio, sent his condolences. Mariano Rajoy, the prime minister, who was born in Santiago, was due at the scene on Thursday.

"In 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," Rajoy said in a statement.

Renfe faced criticism because it failed to issue a press release until three hours after the accident and then only reported it as a derailment without any indication of the seriousness of the accident. On Thursday night investigators were still trying to locate the train's "black box" for clues to what caused the accident.

The derailment happened less than two weeks after six people died when a train came off the tracks and hit the platform at a station in central France.

That accident may have been caused by a loose steel plate at a junction, French train operator SNCF said

[arista]

Yes tragic so many died

[Z]

Oh no that's tragic!

[Jake.]

that's awful!

[arista]

The driver was going double the speed he should

[Ninastar]

jesus christ!

[Drew.]

some of the photos and videos are terrible, the speed it was doing.. definitely looked like it was going too fast

[CaudleHalbard]

Video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH_IjAxDwLo

[Kizzy]

Awful, seems really bizarre after researching crashes for ben the other day too

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

Awful, seems really bizarre after researching crashes for ben the other day too

Yeah, I was watching train crashes yesterday too.

[arista]

One Driver
Went Wrong or was a it a HiTech Computer Fault?
at the danger bend

So many dead.


Great Debate was on Ch4News

[arista]

[Benjamin]

Just caught up with this. So sad.

[Joelle.]

Its tragic

[Patrick]

The video on YouTube.

'R.I.P from Croatia'

There's always one.

[Patrick]

Did the driver himself die?

[CaudleHalbard]

Originally Posted by Patrick

Did the driver himself die?

No. He had only minor injuries.

[Kizzy]

Odd isn't it? got really low and thought, these things are really rare come on....

[arista]

"I ********* up, I want to die':
Black box reveals Spanish driver's agony
moments after 120mph train derailed killing at least 80 people"

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2a94iP8YD


[Francisco Jose Garzon was photographed being helped from
his train's mangled remains by a medic, blood oozing onto
his blue uniform from a wound on his head]

[arista]

This is a Hi Tech computer Train
has a massive error.
as he drives around the bend at double the speed
it could cut his power down
but all it did was flash a Warning Light.

The 52 year old driver under police guard is still not able to talk.
On his facebook page he jokes about Speed

[bbfan1991]

RIP to those who have died. My thoughts and condolences are with their loved ones!

[Nedusa]

Hi tech safety problem or not , the driver MUST have known the train was travelling far too fast. His selfish actions and neglect has caused over 80 lives to be lost in the most horrifying of circumstances.

I hope he gets multiple life sentences ....

[Ammi]

The driver held by police after a train derailed in northwestern Spain has refused to answer questions, authorities have confirmed.

A spokesman for the National Police said the driver "has refused to answer police authorities" and added the case will now "proceed to a judicial process as soon as possible".

Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, 52, was arrested in the hospital where he is recovering after the crash which killed 78 passengers and injured another 130.

Galicia region police chief, Jaime Iglesias, earlier said Garzon would be questioned "as a suspect for a crime linked to the cause of the accident" and said he had been arrested for "recklessness".

He is being guarded by police in hospital, although his condition is understood not to be serious.

Pictures and video footage have emerged of him being led away from the crash scene with his head covered in blood.

The train's black box recorder has been retrieved from the wreckage near Santiago de Compostela.

Early indications suggested the train may have been travelling at more than twice the speed limit at the time of the crash on Wednesday night.

The eight-carriage train came off the tracks on a bend, hit a wall and caught fire just outside the city - a pilgrimage destination for Roman Catholics.

The train entered the bend at 190km per hour (120mph), according to local media reports. The speed limit on the curve was 80km per hour (50mph).

Spanish media revealed that immediately after the derailment Garzon allegedly said to officials at the railway station 3km from the crash: "I ****** up, I want to die. So many people dead, so many people dead."

El Pais newspaper quoted him as telling rail officials: "I was going at 190! I hope no one died because it will weigh on my conscience."

He is also thought to have boasted on his Facebook page about how fast he was driving a train in March last year.

The driver posted a picture of a train speedometer at 200km per hour (124mph) on the social networking site. His Facebook page has since been blocked.

There was a second driver on the train, but it is believed Garzon was the only driver at the time.

He is understood to have taken control of the train from a second driver about 65 miles (104km) south of Santiago de Compostela.

Two investigations are being carried out into the catastrophe - one to look into possible failings by the driver and the other to examine the train's in-built speed regulation systems and see if it was a technical malfunction that meant the driver was not warned of the reduced speed limit around the bend.

Many questions remain unanswered about what went wrong, with some experts claiming that high speed alone would not explain the crash and speculation that the train's braking systems might have failed.

State train company Renfe said Garzon had been at the firm for 30 years and he had been driving trains for more than a decade.

He became an assistant driver in 2000 and a fully qualified driver in 2003.

Garzon is understood to have been on the Madrid to Ferrol service, on which the crash happened, for a year, after undergoing training specific to that line.

Medical experts are attempting to identify six of the 78 dead. DNA tests are expected to be carried out on those with catastrophic injuries.

Victims of the crash included a US citizen and a Mexican. At least one British citizen and four children were among the 130 people injured.

Some 31 of those in hospital are still critically ill.

Spanish newspaper El Pais has revealed details of a dramatic WhatsApp conversation between one of the survivors trapped in the train wreck and her husband.

At 8.45pm local time, the woman sent messages saying she had been in an accident and was "crushed".

After what her husband described as "the longest five minutes of my life", she sent another message saying "I'm safe".

The 46-year-old woman escaped with minor injuries to her legs and has already been discharged from hospital.

Video footage from a security camera showed the train, which had 247 people on board, hurtling into a concrete wall at the side of the track.

The impact was so huge one carriage flew several metres into the air and landed on the other side of a concrete barrier.

The Alvia 730 series train was travelling from Madrid to the port city of Ferrol when it crashed about 8.40pm local time - 7.40pm UK time - on Wednesday.

Gonzalo Ferre, president of the rail infrastructure company Adif, said the driver should have started slowing the train 2.5 miles before reaching a dangerous bend.

The crash occurred on the eve of a major Christian religious festival honouring St James, the disciple of Jesus whose remains are said to rest in a shrine.

Many of the dead or injured were believed to be Catholic pilgrims converging on the city.

Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela, visited the scene of the crash on Thursday and declared three days of official mourning across the country.

King Juan Carlos also visited one of the hospitals where many passengers are being treated.

The train crash is the worst Spain has experienced since a three-train accident in a tunnel in the northern Leon province in 1944.

Due to heavy censorship at the time, the exact death toll for the Torre del Bierzo disaster has never been established. The official figure was given as 78 dead, but it is thought that as many as 250 could have been killed.

[Ninastar]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

Hi tech safety problem or not , the driver MUST have known the train was travelling far too fast. His selfish actions and neglect has caused over 80 lives to be lost in the most horrifying of circumstances.

I hope he gets multiple life sentences ....

he should be charged for every single one of the deaths really..

but i do think he must feel horrific right now.

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Ninastar

he should be charged for every single one of the deaths really..

but i do think he must feel horrific right now.

..yeah he must feel awful right now Caitlin and it's not looking great for him..I think there were reports of the previous year when he was apparently 'bragging' about speeding, I don't know how true that is though...but as much as he feels tortured right now and in a way I feel for him..I don't think I would maybe feel the same if loved ones of mine were on that train...something like this should just never have happened....