Penalties eleven years after train accident with 80 fatalities in Spain
Eleven years exactly after a devastating train accident with 80 fatalities in the northwest of Spain, the two accused men have been sentenced to prison terms of two and a half years each by the Galician Regional High Court. The train driver and the then security chief of the Spanish railway company Adif were found guilty by the judge in 79 counts of manslaughter due to "gross negligence", according to the Galician Regional High Court. The public prosecutor had demanded a four-year prison sentence for both defendants.
The trial in Santiago de Compostela had ended without a verdict one year ago. During the ten-month-long proceedings, nearly 700 witnesses and experts were questioned. The lawyers had denied the guilt of their clients in their closing statements and blamed each other defendant for the accident.
Victims and relatives had demanded "Justice" and above all a harsh sentence for Adif at several protest rallies. Adif should not be made a scapegoat, they argued.
The accident train was traveling at 192 kilometers per hour on July 24, 2013, in Angrois, just a few kilometers from Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, in a curve where only 80 kilometers per hour was permitted. The train derailed, resulting in 80 fatalities and 145 injuries. It was one of the deadliest train accidents in European history.
After the sentences were handed down, victims and their families expressed their dissatisfaction with the two-and-a-half-year jail terms, advocating for harsher fines and accountability. The tragic train accident in Spain, which occurred eleven years ago, resulted in fatalities and injuries, leading to the trial and subsequent sentencing of the train driver and Adif's former security chief. Despite calls for justice, it took the Galician Regional High Court over a year to deliver a verdict in the case, which highlighted the complexity and gravity of the train accident.
