Spanish court finds train driver on phone at moment of derailment

A Spanish court found on Tuesday that the driver of the train, which derailed and killed 79 people last Wednesday, was speaking on the phone when the accident occurred.

The Galician Superior Court of Justice said in a statement that Francisco Jose Garzon, the train driver, received a call from the staff of the rail company Renfe to discuss the route he needed to follow when the crash happened.

The analysis of the train black boxes also showed the train was driving at 192 km per hour, while at the moment of the derailment the speed had fallen to 153 km after the driver tried to brake.

The train was carrying 218 passengers when it hurtled off the tracks just before arriving at Santiago de Compostela in north-western region of Galicia. Sixty-six people are still hospitalised and 15 remain in critical condition.