Pre-Crash Spanish Train Was Running At Twice The Speed Limit
Shaveta Bansal - All Headline News Staff Writer Valencia, Spain (AHN) - A Valencia city official on Tuesday said that the Spanish underground train, which derailed killing 41 people, was traveling at twice the speed limit before the crash. The incident occurred Monday as several hundreds of thousands of people began traveling to Valencia to attend the World Meeting of the Families, which has been slated for July 8-9 by Pope Benedict. Valencia's transport Chief Jose Ramon Garcia said that the black box data showed the train was doing 80 km per hour (48 mph) through a curving tunnel just before entering the Jesus metro station on Monday. "Without any doubt, this caused the derailing," Garcia told reporters. Newspaper El Pais quoting an accident report by metro operator Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana said that the driver, who was among those killed, might have suffered some type of sudden physical problem. Valencia's train drivers' union, which had earlier said it suspected poor maintenance had caused the accident, accepted the train had been going too fast on a dangerous curve. "We're sure something happened to the driver," said union chief Fernando Soto. At least one survivor told Spanish media on Monday that the train had accelerated before braking suddenly just before the accident. Another survivor said terrified passengers had begun to shout "an attack, an attack", recalling the |
