[Beerinkol]

The driver of a Spanish high-speed train that derailed was charged with 79 counts of homicide and released pending trial, after appearing before a judge on Sunday evening.

Francisco Garzon, 52, had been under arrest since Thursday, a day after the worst train crash in Spain in decades. He is suspected of driving the train too fast through a tight curve on the outskirts of the northwestern Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela.

Examining Magistrate Luis Alaez formally charged Garzon with "79 counts of homicide and numerous offences of bodily harm, all of them committed through professional recklessness," the court said in a statement.

Judge Alaez took two hours of testimony from Garzon in a closed-door hearing on Sunday evening.

[Ifroham4]

I'll remember this guy when I think I'm having a bad day at work.

[tgs]

I'd be afraid to set him free pending trial. He needs to be on 24 hour suicide watch.

[NeroASERCH]

absolutely. that's a lot of guilt to be carrying around. even if it wasn't actually his fault directly, he'll always feel responsible. fts.

[brraverishhh]

How was he not responsible? Was there a mechanical malfunction that caused the train to travel above 200% of the safe speed for that corner?

[9mm_fan]

I heard yesterday on the tv that he said he tried breaking, but that nothing happened. Could still turn out to be a malfunction.

[Fegasderty]

He was breaking bad.

[9mm_fan]

too soon

[softy54534]

Train was going on a fast line (200km/h) and needed to slow down for the corner to 80km/h from 4km away. At the same point the train safety management system switches over from the ETCS to the domestic Spanish system. I'm no expert on train driving or management systems but it's quite possible a series of failures occurring simultaneously could have resulted in the train not responding to the brakes and the train control system not activating correctly.
Plus, I highly doubt someone who's been driving high-speed trains for over 10 years would have been crazy enough to override the systems and take such a tight corner at double the speed limit.

[Slonopotam845]

This is why the whole thing is a bit suspicious. The rail company and to some extent the government are trying to dump all of this on human error when black boxes haven't even been cracked open yet. But once your realize that the Spanish rail company has some huge contracts pending in Brazil, Russia and the states... well you can see where this is going. Much easier to hang one person than investigate the entire infrastructure. But from what I can see and hear among the people I talk to, folks aren't buying this express-lynching. Not surprising considering that a lot of people are still pissed over the coverups that occurred with the Valencia Metro accident in 2006. They had it much easier then because the motorman died instantly.

[S.T.D.]

And even if the driver had full control and failed to slow down, the next question is why they don't have fail safe systems in place that prevent this from being possible? There is no reason why trains can't auto-drive 99% of the time. The train company is to blame for designing a system where human error is a catastrophic point of failure.

[Beerinkol]

Really, this is the key.
We have airplanes that can takeoff and land without any human intervention, we have rockets that can reach orbit without human intervention. There are far fewer variables in operating a high speed train.

[Ifroham4]

There are no auto-takeoff systems in use that I am aware of, and auto-land is only used in very poor weather. Over 99% of all landings are flown by hand.

[tgs]

This is why the whole thing is a bit suspicious

Exactly. Everyone I'm talking to thinks this is all way too convenient, but I haven't heard the angle about the contracts in other countries, just that people suspect the government of trying to distract from poor maintenance due to cutbacks.

[NeroASERCH]

Don't forget the way they plastered that facebook pic of him showing off the speedometer on the news not long after the incident.

[brraverishhh]

This sounds shady as fuck. If Spanish law is anything like US law, by treating this as a crime the train company will be absolved of liability because a company is not liable for the intentional torts of its employees. Which is horseshit because there should be no way to drive a train 100mph to fast into a corner. (And it is impossible on pretty much every other train system in the western world)

[9mm_fan]

Not in the US, btw, or large parts of the EURO network. On some sections, yes, but it's no where close to universal.
Now what most places DO have is equipment to automatically apply the brakes if the driver runs a red signal...but that's a very different "degree of difficulty" from actually monitoring the speed.

[softy54534]

A similar accident happened on a Japanese commuter train in 2005, with 107 fatalities. A train was running late, and the driver decided to go too fast to make up for it. The driver died, so no charges were filed.
No accident like this has ever happened on Japan's high-speed train, the Shinkansen. I am not sure if it's possible for it to happen, but the system dates back to the '60s so it probably relies more on driver control than automation.

[Slonopotam845]

This i a famous story in Japan. At the time, drivers were blamed for being late, no matter the reason. And punished to boot. But after this the company changed its policy.
I think it may be the case here as well. What is the real benefit or him gettig there a few minutes early? He clocks out at 5 either way. Company culture needs to be looked at

[S.T.D.]

I distinctly recall watching a docu on this in "seconds from disaster" a while back. IIRC a week or so before, the driver got late by about 17 minutes by the end of his run (note that Japanese railways are supposed to be like clockwork. 1 minute off means the some of the passengers will miss their transfer to the other trains). He got punished with a whole lot of verbal abuse, think drill sergeant-breathing-down-your-neck-24-7. It was kind of hellish o go through and left him with emotional scars.

Fast forward to the day of incident he was trying hard to improve his times and made a small mistake, tripping a speed-limiter. This caused him to be late by around 30 seconds on his next stop. Trying hard to make up for it he speeds up, only to have it backfire by overshooting the next station by something like 10 meters so he has to back up, costing him around 5 minutes. His fear of punishment drives him up the wall, and he decides to floor it going about twice the max speed for the curve resulting in the crash.