The Alvia macro-trial begins, an examination of railway safety

• Galicia Nine years of pain and anger for the victims of the Alvia train

• Accident The victims of the Alvia

“I had to go to 80 and I went to 190 or something like that.

Is that this I already told the security, that this was dangerous, that one day we were going to get lost and we were going to swallow it (...) We are human and it can happen to us ».

These phrases are part of the first conversation that

had with the Atocha control center after the Alvia accident outside

.

He was the driver and warned of a derailment with

.

At that time, he was unaware of the tragic balance - in the conversation he even says "I hope there are no deaths" -, but he was already advancing, hot, the two keys that will mark the trial for the tragedy.

The macro trial will be held as of today in the

, a very short distance from the

where the train derailed more than nine years ago, on July 24, 2013. On the bench Garzón will be present due to the imprudence of entering the curve at 178 kilometers per hour, despite the fact that the section is limited to 80, and

's traffic safety director at the time the line is put into operation,

, because, according to the prosecutor, "the accident would not have happened" if "he had evaluated and managed the risk of excessive speed in the section of the accident."

There the two keys that the train driver gave as soon as the accident occurred: he was driving very fast and the person in charge of security did not guarantee the measures to foresee a possible human error.

The prosecutor charges both with 80 crimes of homicide due to serious professional negligence, 145 injuries due to serious professional negligence and a crime of damage.

Derailment of the train in the curve of A Grandeira on July 24, 2013.EM

The

's Office requests for each four years in prison and that Garzón be disqualified from his profession during the time of the sentence -although he is already pre-retired- and Cortabitarte the same time for the exercise of any profession that implies management, security or responsibility in railway infrastructures.

civil liability

In addition, there is a total claim for damages in terms of civil liability amounting to

, which are claimed from Renfe (

) and Adif (

) insurers, in addition to

, Adif and the two defendants.

The trial will last until at least June 2023. Until February 10, the criminal part will be held and from February 14 the practice of civil action will begin.

The magistrate who will judge the case,

, head

, has dedicated the last few months to organizing the sessions of what will be the largest judicial appointment of those held in Galicia.

The figures speak for themselves: the main file is made up of 44,460 pages, divided into 95 volumes;

there are separately 144 pieces of injured and 80 of deceased;

the testimony of 522 witnesses has been admitted, 21 witnesses/experts and 126 experts;

and there are 446 injured people who claim, grouped in 154 accusations, assisted by 110 lawyers and represented by 47 attorneys.

To accommodate all those involved and guarantee media coverage, it has been necessary to set up a building for the City of Culture.

The view will be a complete review of Spanish railway safety.

The prosecutor questions that the driver "omitted the minimum attention of his professional duties" by answering a call to the corporate mobile phone, which does not have a hands-free system, made by the inspector and having a conversation "that did not imply urgency" of 100 seconds.

The security manager at Adif questions that "he breached the duty he held due to his status within Adif", since "he had the duty to manage and mitigate the risks of speeding not covered by the line's own protection system and the train," but the rail accident line "was highly vulnerable" to human error.

Driver's Defense

The driver's lawyer,

, asks for his client's acquittal because, despite the fact that Garzón has recognized from the beginning his mistake and that he was driving with excessive speed and even apologized to the victims because the lawyer considers that "the driver , and to all the train drivers, they were not given the tools and systems that had to be established in the infrastructures and on the tracks”.

The train driver, Francisco José Garzón, after the accident.EM

In statements to EL MUNDO, the lawyer indicated that he expects from this trial that they can "bring out the reality" of what happened and that "the corresponding responsibilities are adopted", which in his opinion is the security director of Adif, because the "omission of security measures cannot be a burden for these workers, but on the contrary, they should be released because it is the absence of occupational risk prevention and railway safety prevention."

Cortabitarte's defense, exercised by Adif, focuses the blame on the train driver and just a month ago, on September 5, he presented

that advances that line of defense, a video montage of the last five and a half kilometers of the route of the Alvia with the telephone conversation between the driver and the comptroller in the background.

The president of the majority association of victims,

, trusts that this judicial process will serve so that "the series of negligence and fudges committed by Adif and the

are known " and also "the attempts to conceal information by part of the institutions”, alluding to the fact that the investigating judge himself came to reproach Adif for its lack of collaboration with the investigation and for the lack of transparency at the political level.

In this regard, last Monday the platform concentrated before Congress to denounce that

, Minister of Public Works when the accident occurred, "was directly involved in hiding everything that had to do with the terrible tragedy."

Both her and the head of Public Works when the line was inaugurated,

, ask for political responsibility outside the judicial process.

Paraphrasing the father of one of the deceased, Domínguez recalls that "there will be a sentence, but no justice."

EXTRAORDINARY INFRASTRUCTURE

The Xunta de Galicia will spend 931,759 euros to organize the trial in a space of 1,058 square meters in the CINC building of the Cidade da Cultura de Santiago: 508 for the courtroom, 172 for judicial offices, 181 for the press room, 122 for the public and 75 for robes and cafeteria.

WITHOUT ERTMS

The train was equipped with the ASFA Digital safety system and with the ERTMS/ECTS continuous speed control system, but the latter had been disconnected a year before the accident by decision of Andrés Cortabitarte.

If active, it would have alerted the driver to your speeding.

100 SECOND CALL

The driver was traveling at 199 km/h in a section near the A Grandeira curve when he answered a call from the inspector to the corporate mobile, without hands free.

He spoke 100 seconds and, when he finally reacted, he managed to reduce speed to 179.38 km / h, in a section limited to 80.

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• Galicia

• Train accident in Santiago