Dawn

Dawn

Friday, July 26, 2013

The Spanish Train Tragedy 12

You have to say that, if you were the president of one of the companies potentially implicated in this tragedy, the driver would be a godsend in terms of deflecting the spotlight from yourself to him. He's made several comments about his actions and his emotions and, tellingly, these have all been leaked and seized on by the media. As you would expect.

Now, however, the driver has decided to stand on his rights and clam up. Officially charged with criminal recklessness, he has declined to declare to the'inspectors of the judicial brigade of Santiago police force'. I guess he has a lawyer by now. No doubt he'll be asking how the police know what happened - or can even guess at it - without the black box and considerable analysis.

Prestige captain - contrasts enormously with the slow pace of things later on in the process. One gets the impression it's more of a priority to blame and charge the driver than to publish the information from the black box.

Others are not keeping their thoughts to themselves.

The president of Adif (the company responsible for rail infrastructure) has pronounced that the driver should have braked 4km before the bend.

The president of the national rail carrier - RENFE - has said that the driver had covered this stretch 60 times and should have been totally clear about what needed to be done. 

It's probable that these two gentlemen have not acted in concert.

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