Safety officials under investigation after Spanish train crash

Safety officials in charge of the railway stretch where a train accident killed 79 people in Spain were charged by the court on Tuesday.

Judge Luis Alaez accused safety officials from ADIF, a state-owned company responsible for managing and building rail lines, saying the causes of the accident could be connected with the lack of preventive security measures.

Alaez said the derailment was mainly caused by the driver driving at more than twice the speed limit. However, he argued that the curve of the railway tracks at that juncture was dangerous to the train and the lives of people.

"There was an omission of elementary precautions by those whose mission was to guarantee the safety of railway circulation of the line, which could constitute a punishable offence," Alaez said.

Other methods should have been implemented to avoid human errors caused by fatigue or habit, such as visual and audible signals, the judge said in a document, adding there were not adequate automatic breaking systems that could have avoided the accident on that stretch.

In his opinion, a signal asking speed be reduced to 80 km per hour was not enough as it was very close to the curve, at which point it was difficult to reduce speed manually.

The judge also asked ADIF and RENFE to deliver reports on security protocols and incident reports related to the track where the crash took place.

The train crash of Santiago de Compostela, capital of the northwestern region of Galicia, took place on July 24, the night before the holiday of St James, Galicia's patron saint. The train was especially full for that reason with 218 passengers plus crew.

A total of 79 people died and more than 150 were injured in the worst train accident Spain has suffered in 40 years.