Spanish Train Crash: Authorities Say Conductor Was on the Phone at the Time of Accident

The conductor of the train that derailed in Santiago de Compostela, Francisco José Garzón, was talking on the phone at the moment of the accident, according to police investigations. The train accident took the lives of 79 people, among them a young Mexican woman.

According to the Galicia Court, which has already filled homicide charges against Garzón, the train was travelling at 153 kilometers per hour, a rate that is almost twice the speed limit recommended for the curve where the accident occurred.

The train was derailed on Wednesday afternoon when it was nearing Santiago de Compostela, as the train neared the end of a six-hour trip between the Spanish cities of Madrid and Ferrol. Minutes before the accident, Garzon received a call on his work phone, during which he was receiving instructions from central staff at Ferrol, according to documents released by the court. Noise recorded on the telephone call reveal that Garzon was manipulating papers at the time of the call.

The train was supposed to slow down almost four miles before it reached the curve, according to a the president of the state-owned Railway Infrastructure Management Company.

The driver activated the brakes only seconds before the impact, which lowered the speed down from 192 kilometers. According to the court, Garzon was still on the phone at the exact moment of the accident.

The information has been drawn from two black boxes. These black boxes were able to record most of the information about the trip including the conversations between the drivers and the control point to the speed or performance of the brake.

On Sunday, Garzón received probation after being charged with 79 counts of negligent manslaughter and several more for injuries related to the accident. The authorities suspended his professional driver's license for six months and ordered him to report to court once every week. Garzón's passport was also revoked, to avoid him from fleeing the country.

Of the 79 victims who died in the accident, 63 were Spanish while the rest of them were from the United States, other European countries and Latin America. One of the victims was Yolanda Delfín, a 22 year old woman from Veracruz, Mexico who was doing a semester abroad in Santiago De Compostela.

Spanish autorithies declared three days of national mourning after the accident and commentators have said that it is the worst accident the country has seen in over 40 years.