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Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, the train driver in last week’s crash in Spain, was talking on the phone when it derailed, investigators say.
The train was travelling at 153 km/h (95 mph) at the time, investigators at the Court of Justice of Galicia said.
Francisco Jose Garzon Amo was speaking to members of staff at the state-owned railway company, Renfe, they added.
Crash investigators had opened the train’s “black-box” data recorder to find the cause of the crash, which left 79 people dead.
Moments before the accident the train was travelling at a speed of 192 km/h (119 mph), the court said in a statement.
Investigators say the brakes were activated shortly before the crash.
The speed limit on the sharp bend where the train derailed was set at 80 km/h (49 mph).
The train driver in last week’s crash in Spain was talking on the phone when it derailed
“Minutes before the train came off the tracks he received a call on his work phone to get indications on the route he had to take to get to Ferrol. From the content of the conversation and background noise it seems that the driver consulted a map or paper document,” a court statement said.
Francisco Jose Garzon Amo is suspected of reckless homicide, but he has not yet been formally charged.
He was released from custody in Santiago de Compostela, where the crash occurred, on Sunday but remains under court supervision.
He must appear before a court once a week and was not allowed to leave Spain without permission.
Francisco Jose Garzon Amo’s passport has been surrendered to the judge and his licence to drive a train has been suspended.
Under Spanish law, his legal status is that he is suspected of being involved in 79 counts of reckless homicide but has not been formally charged.
But officials said he had admitted negligence by being careless when rounding a bend too fast.
All eight carriages of the train careered off the tracks into a concrete wall as they sped around the curve on the express route between Madrid and the port city of Ferrol on the Galician coast.
On Monday, a mass was held in the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
PM Mariano Rajoy, along with the heir to the Spanish crown, Prince Felipe, and his wife Princess Letizia, joined the grieving families and local residents in the cathedral as the city’s archbishop prayed for the dead.
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Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, the driver of Spanish train that derailed near Santiago de Compostela killing 78 people, has been accused of “reckless manslaughter”, Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz has said.
Jorge Fernandez Diaz said Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, who was slightly hurt in Wednesday’s accident, had been taken to a police station.
Francisco Jose Garzon Amo is suspected of driving too fast on a bend. Reports say the train was travelling at more than double the speed limit at the time of the crash.
The 52-year-old driver has refused to answer questions.
At least 130 people were taken to hospital after the accident near the north-western city of Santiago de Compostela.
Thirty-two people were seriously injured, including children.
People from several nationalities were among the wounded, including five Americans and one Briton. One American was among the dead.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who hails from the city of the crash, declared three days of official mourning on Thursday.
A judge was due to interview Francisco Jose Garzon Amo on Sunday, the interior minister said.
Spanish train driver Francisco Jose Garzon Amo has been accused of reckless manslaughter
“He has been detained for the alleged crimes of reckless manslaughter,” Jorge Fernandez Diaz said.
“There are reasonable grounds to consider that he may have been responsible for what happened, which must be established by a judge and the investigation.”
The driver had been under police surveillance in hospital since the accident but he was discharged on Saturday and taken to a police station.
Police said Francisco Jose Garzon Amo had refused to answer their questions while he was in medical care.
State rail operator Renfe said the train came off the tracks about 3 or 4 km (2-2.5 miles) from Santiago de Compostela station at 20:41 local time on Wednesday.
The accident occurred on the express route between the capital, Madrid, and the port city of Ferrol on the Galician coast, with 218 passengers on board and four crew.
Footage captured by a security camera shows the train crashing as it hurtled round a bend.
The train’s data recording “black box” is with the judge in charge of the investigation.
It is unclear whether anyone else is subject to investigation.
Renfe president Julio Gomez Pomar was quoted by El Mundo newspaper as saying the driver had 30 years of experience with the company and had been operating trains on the line for more than a year.
Gomez Pomar said the train had no technical problems.
The derailment happened on the eve of Santiago de Compostela’s main annual festival where thousands of Christian pilgrims were expected to flock to the city in honor of St James.
The local tourism board cancelled all festivities as the city went into mourning.
According to official figures, the crash is one of the worst rail disasters in Spanish history.
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Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, the driver of the Spanish train that derailed on Wednesday killing 78 people, has been formally detained, police say.
Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, who was injured and is under guard in hospital, is accused of “crimes related to the accident”, they say.
There are reports that the train was travelling at more than double the speed limit at the time of the crash.
Spain has declared three days of national mourning over the crash, one of its worst-ever rail disasters.
The police chief in the Galicia region, Jaime Iglesias, said on Friday that 52-year-old driver Francisco Jose Garzon Amo would be questioned “as a suspect for a crime linked to the cause of the accident”.
He added that Francisco Jose Garzon Amo could not yet testify because of his medical condition.
Police also put the confirmed number of deaths at 78 – down from 80 announced earlier.
Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, the driver of the Spanish train that derailed on Wednesday killing 78 people, has been formally detained
They said the difference arose because human remains had been wrongly identified in the initial stages.
At least 130 people were taken to hospital after the accident near the north-western city of Santiago de Compostela, and 95 are still being treated.
The 32 seriously injured include children. People from several nationalities are among the wounded, including five Americans and one Briton. One American was among the dead.
On Thursday junior transport minister Rafael Catala said early indications suggested the train had been going too fast.
The Madrid to Ferrol train’s data recording “black box” is now with the judge in charge of the investigation.
It is unclear whether anyone else is subject to investigation.
The president of railway firm Renfe, Julio Gomez Pomar, was quoted by El Mundo newspaper as saying the driver had 30 years of experience with the company and had been operating trains on the line for more than a year.
He said the train which derailed had no technical problems.
Renfe said the train came off the tracks about 3 or 4 km (2-2.5 miles) from Santiago de Compostela station at 20:41 local time on Wednesday.
It was on the express route between the capital, Madrid, and the port city of Ferrol on the Galician coast, with 218 passengers on board and four crew.
The derailment happened on the eve of Santiago de Compostela’s main annual festival where thousands of Christian pilgrims were expected to flock to the city in honor of St James.
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King Juan Carlos of Spain has said all Spanish people feel the pain of the families of the 80 people killed in a high-speed train crash near Santiago de Compostela.
The king was speaking on a visit to the dozens of hospitalized survivors in Santiago de Compostela, near to where the train derailed on Wednesday night.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who hails from the city of the crash, declared three days of official mourning on Thursday.
One of the train drivers is under formal investigation, officials say.
The driver, named by Spanish media as Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, was slightly injured and will be questioned by police in hospital, the Galicia Supreme Court said in a statement.
Spain’s national train operator Renfe said it was too early to say what caused the train to derail. However, survivor accounts and media reports suggest the train was travelling at excessive speed as it hit a curve in the track.
Footage captured by a security camera shows the train crashing as it hurtled round a bend.
King Juan Carlos and his wife Queen Sofia visited survivors and the families of victims at Santiago’s University Hospital on Thursday.
“All Spanish people join in the sorrow of the relatives of the deceased,” he said, praising what he called the spirit of citizenship shown by rescue workers and blood donors.
King Juan Carlos of Spain on a visit to the dozens of hospitalized survivors in Santiago de Compostela
PM Mariano Rajoy was at the scene of the crash on Thursday.
“For a native of Santiago like me, this is the saddest day,” he said.
At least 130 people were taken to hospital after the crash, and 94 are still being treated, health officials say.
Thirty-two people are seriously injured, including children.
People from several nationalities are among the wounded, including five Americans and one Briton. One American was among the dead.
The Madrid to Ferrol train’s data recording “black box” is now with the judge in charge of the investigation.
Meanwhile, the train’s carriages have been removed from the track by cranes and sent for analysis.
The president of railway firm Renfe, Julio Gomez Pomar, was quoted by El Mundo newspaper as saying the driver, who was aged 52, had 30 years of experience with the company and had been operating trains on this line for more than a year.
He said the train which derailed had no technical problems.
“The train had passed an inspection that same morning. Those trains are inspected every 7,500km… Its maintenance record was perfect,” he told Spanish radio.
But Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, who was trapped in the cab after the accident, is quoted as saying moments after the crash that the train had taken the curve at 190 km/h (120mph) despite a speed limit on that section of 80 km/h.
If this is the case, it remains to be seen whether a systems failure or driver error was the cause, correspondents say.
Spain has invested huge amounts of money in its rail network and has a relatively good safety record.
According to official figures, the crash is one of the worst rail disasters in Spanish history.
Renfe said the train came off the tracks a few kilometres before Santiago de Compostela station at 20:41 local time on Wednesday.
It was on the express route between the capital, Madrid, and the port city of Ferrol on the Galician coast, with 218 passengers on board – in addition to an unknown number of staff and crew.
Witnesses to the crash described seeing carriages “piled on top of one another” after the train hit a curve.
The derailment happened on the eve of Santiago de Compostela’s main annual festival where thousands of Christian pilgrims were expected to flock to the city in honor of St James.
The local tourism board cancelled all festivities as the city went into mourning.
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At least 77 people died and more than 100 are injured following train derailment near Santiago de Compostela in north-western Spain, officials in the Galicia region say.
All eight carriages of the Madrid to Ferrol train carrying 218 passengers came off the tracks near the city of Santiago de Compostela.
Media reports say the train may have been travelling at more than twice the speed limit around a curve.
Officials have not commented on the cause. Analysts say it is the worst train accident in Spain in 40 years.
Spain generally has a relatively good record in terms of rail safety.
This is a country which has invested huge amounts of money in its rail network.
Spain’s last major rail disaster was in 1972 when 77 people were killed in a derailment in Andalusia in the south.
Railway firm Renfe said the train came off the tracks on a bend about 2-2.5 miles from Santiago de Compostela station at 20:41 local time.
It was on the express route between Madrid and the ship-building city of Ferrol on the Galician coast.
Renfe says it and the track operating company Adif are collaborating with a judge appointed to investigate the accident.
At least 77 people died and more than 100 are injured following train derailment near Santiago de Compostela in north-western Spain
Government officials said they believed the crash was an accident, but that no statement would be made regarding the cause without a proper investigation.
“We are moving away from the hypothesis of sabotage or attack,” one unnamed official said.
Rescue workers have continued to search for survivors in the wreckage.
They have so far recovered 73 bodies from the accident site, while four more people died in hospital, a spokeswoman for Galicia’s supreme court said on Thursday. Judges are responsible for registering deaths in Spain.
It is not known how many Renfe employees were on board the train.
Images from the site showed bodies covered with blankets next to the tracks, as emergency crews searched the wreckage.
More than 140 passengers were receiving treatment for a range of light to more serious injuries, a health official told reporters on Thursday morning.
Residents flocked to hospitals in the area to donate blood in response to an appeal.
Meanwhile, 320 Spanish police officers were deployed to help out the rescue operation.
The leader of the regional government Alberto Nunez Feijoo described it as “a Dante-esque scene”, in comments to Radio Cadena Ser.
One witness, Ricardo Montesco, described how the train carriages “piled on top of one another” after the train hit a curve.
“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 realized the train was burning…I was in the second wagon and there was fire. I saw corpses,” he told Spanish Cadena Ser radio station.
Several eyewitnesses described the train travelling very fast before it derailed.
The derailment happened on the eve of Santiago de Compostela’s main annual festival where thousands of Christian pilgrims were expected to flock to the city in honor of Saint James.
The city’s tourism board said all festivities planned for Thursday have been cancelled.
Local journalist Francisco Camino said the region was in shock.
“This is a tiny place and nothing happens here, nothing important or tragic,” he said.
“We were preparing for the celebrations and now this could turn out to be the worst train crash in many years.”
PM Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela, convened an emergency ministerial meeting late on Wednesday. He is due to visit the scene of the accident on Thursday.
“I want to express my affection and solidarity with the victims of the terrible train accident in Santiago,” Mariano Rajoy said.
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At least 10 people are reported killed after a train has derailed near Santiago de Compostela in north-western Spain.
Spanish railway company Renfe confirmed the train had come off the tracks near the city of Santiago de Compostela in the Galicia region.
At least 10 people are reported killed after a train has derailed near Santiago de Compostela in north-western Spain
A Renfe spokesman told AFP news agency several people had been killed and several more injured.
Spanish news agency Efe quoted police and hospital sources as saying at least 50 people were injured.
Reports said all 13 carriages had left the tracks, and four carriages had overturned completely.
Images showed dozens of emergency workers crowded around ruined carriages.
Passengers were shown lying on the ground being treated.
Renfe said the train carried more than 200 passengers, and was on the high-speed route between Madrid and Ferrol on the Galician coast.
Police in northern Spain have recovered one of the country’s great cultural treasures – Codex Calixtinus – a 12th-Century religious manuscript stolen a year ago.
The Codex Calixtinus was found in a garage near Santiago de Compostela and four people were arrested over the theft from the city’s cathedral.
The richly decorated book is considered the first guide for those following the ancient pilgrimage route to Santiago.
The Codex Calixtinus was found in a garage near Santiago de Compostela and four people were arrested over the theft from the city's cathedral
Police arrested a technician who worked at the cathedral and three relatives.
Christians believe the Santiago de Compostela cathedral to be the burial place of St James the Greater, one of Jesus’s apostles.
The manuscript was found after the technician and three members of his family were arrested on Wednesday.
Besides the Codex, police also found other valuable old books stolen from the cathedral and at least 1.2 million Euros in cash.
A replica of the Codex is on display in a glass case at the cathedral.
Only a handful of people had access to the room in which the original was kept. It is thought to date from around 1150.
