Relatives and injured begin to testify this Tuesday in the Alvia trial

Santiago de Compostela, Feb 13 (EFE).- From this Tuesday and for the next few months, the City of Culture, in Compostela, will begin to receive the relatives of the fatalities and the injured of the greatest railway tragedy in recent 80 years in Spain, the accident that broke out at the Angrois curve in July 2013.

After more than four months of a trial that began on October 5, magistrate María Elena Fernández Currás ended the criminal phase of the oral hearing last Wednesday.

Dozens of witnesses and experts have passed through the room set up for this process in extensive, almost exhausting interrogation sessions, in a difficult case, marked by its highly technical nature and that tries to settle the responsibilities of the accident.

The only two defendants, the driver of the accident train, Francisco Garzón Amo, and the former head of traffic security for Adif Andrés Cortabitarte, face four years in prison for 80 crimes of homicide for serious professional negligence.

The long testimonies of these months have served to lay some of the foundations of what happened on that fateful day, July 24, 2013, when the train coming from Madrid took the A Grandeira (Angrois) curve at 192 kilometers per hour. , at more than double the speed allowed and derailed, causing the death of 80 people and injuring almost a hundred and a half.

The telephone call from the controller to the driver is one of the main assets of Adif and the defense of Cortabitarte, who focus their defense on blaming the driver for what happened. However, the driver’s defense also tries to blame the administrator for not having carried out the corresponding risk assessment before the start-up of the high-speed line between Ourense and Santiago, whose initial project was modified, so that the ERTMS system on the track was disconnected.

It will not be until June when magistrate María Elena Fernández Currás makes a decision and leaves the case seen for sentencing. But now the trial begins in its civil phase, a very different one.

It tries to establish the compensation for the injured and the families of the victims, which add up to a total of 57.7 million euros. The actions are directed against the Renfe insurer (QBE); that of Adif (Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty); Renfe Operator and Adif.