Santiago de Compostela derailment

Background

Spain has one of the world's most extensive high-speed railway (HSR) networks, built and maintained by the state-owned infrastructure company Adif and run by the operator Renfe which is also a state-owned company that manages the rolling stock.

The Olmedo-Zamora-Galicia high-speed rail line is only partially completed, with some sections of the HSR already in service while other sections still remain as a conventional railway line.

The RENFE Class 730 passenger train is in service on this line, as it can run on both conventional and high-speed tracks. It also has two generator cars that allow its electric traction motors to function on non-electrified lines, but which bring its weight per axle well over the normal value for high velocity trains. It is essentially a hybrid system, and it is built up of pieces which had not been accredited as a whole. It has a top speed of 180 kilometres per hour (110 mph) when running in diesel mode, and around 260 kilometres per hour (160 mph) when running on overhead electrification.

Derailment

At 20:41 CEST (18:41 UTC) on 24 July 2013 the passenger train, on an express route from Madrid Chamartín railway station to Ferrol, derailed on a section of conventional track at the end of the Olmedo-Zamora-Galicia line, at Angrois in Santiago de Compostela. All vehicles, the two power cars, their adjacent generator cars – both with diesel tanks – at both ends of the train and the nine intermediate carriages, derailed as the train rounded the A Grandeira curve; four cars overturned. A track-side CCTV camera video indicates that the front generator car was the first to leave the rails, followed by the leading passenger coaches, the front power car, the rear generator car and finally the rear power car. The train was carrying 218 passengers at the time of the crash. Three of the carriages were torn apart in the accident and another caught fire due to gaseous leaking diesel fuel. The rear generator car also caught fire. Further investigation revealed that the train was travelling at over twice the posted speed limit when it entered the curve.

Of the 218 passengers, there were 79 fatalities (at one point reported as 80 due to a misidentification of some body parts) and the remaining 139 were injured. Among the dead were foreigners: 1 French, 1 Algerian, 1 Brazilian, 2 Italians, 1 Mexican, 1 Dominican, and 1 American. The train's two drivers were injured but survived. On 25 July, 36 of the injured were still listed as being in a serious condition.

Reaction

The regional government leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, remarked, "There are bodies lying on the railway track. It's a Dante-esque scene". About 320 Spanish national police were dispatched to the scene of the accident. Festivities planned for 25 July, which is a regional holiday (Día Nacional de Galicia), were cancelled.

Spain's prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, called an emergency ministerial meeting, saying, "I want to express my affection and solidarity with the victims of the terrible train accident in Santiago." On 25 July, Rajoy visited the area and declared three days of national mourning. King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía visited injured survivors in hospital at Santiago de Compostela.

On 9 August, the Spanish Government announced that there would be a nationwide review of all railway lines, their signalling and the route knowledge of train drivers.

Investigation

The Comisión de Investigación de Accidentes Ferroviarios is responsible for the investigation of railway accidents in Spain. A government spokesperson said that all signs pointed to the Santiago de Compostela derailment being an accident and said there was no evidence that terrorism was a factor. Sabotage was also ruled out.

Eyewitnesses said the train was travelling at high speed before derailing which was subsequently confirmed. Data from the train's black box revealed that 250 m (820 ft) before the start of the curve the train was travelling at 195 km/h (121 mph) and in spite of the emergency brakes being applied was still travelling at 179 km/h (111 mph) when it derailed 4 seconds later. That confirmed a statement made in court by the driver, Garzón Amo, that the train was travelling at 180–190 km/h (111-118 mph) at the time of the accident. That was more than double the speed limit for that curve, which is 80 km/h (50 mph). Although at double the posted speed limit, the train may well have got around the curve if it had been purely electric; the increased centre of gravity of the diesel units resulted in the overturn, showing clearly in the video clip. The radius of the curve was 350–400 m. On good mainline standards of 6 deg cant, it is good for 100 km/h service speed. With a centre of gravity 1000 mm above the railhead, the overturning speed is 200 km/h. With a centre of gravity 2000 mm above the railhead (quite likely for a diesel prime mover), the overturning speed moves down to 150 km/h.

Various media outlets reported that Garzón Amo had, over a year ago, boasted on his personal Facebook page, of the speeds at which his trains would travel. One Facebook posting, reported by Spanish media, attributed to Garzón Amo, stated: "It would be amazing to go alongside police and overtake them and trigger off the speed camera", accompanied by a photo of a train’s speedometer clocking 200 km/h (124 mph). A follow-up comment attributed to Garzón Amo reads: "Ha ha ha, that would be a lovely fine for Renfe." However, these speeds are normal and fully permitted on the high-speed line sections.

The bend where the accident happened is the first curve reached by a Santiago-bound train coming from Ourense after an 80-kilometre (50 mi) stretch of high-speed track which is limited to 200 km/h (124 mph). The high-speed track has ERTMS-compliant signalling, which is designed to slow or stop a train whose driver is ignoring signals or the speed limits. However, the new high-speed line joins a conventional track shared with low-speed trains, at the curve where the accident happened. The conventional track only had the older ASFA signalling system, which will warn drivers if they are exceeding speed limits, but will not automatically slow or stop a speeding train. There is a different system capable of stopping a train if it passes a red signal but that was irrelevant in this case. Part of the ongoing investigation into the incident will focus on whether any of these speed monitoring systems failed and why the originally built-in safety system ETCS/ERTMS had been disconnected. However, the corrective actions taken after the accident indicate that the system as designed did not automatically regulate the train speed to a lower value on leaving the high-speed section, and the required drastic braking was poorly signaled on the track.

Garzón Amo was detained pending a criminal investigation, according to a spokeswoman for the Court of Justice of Galicia regional supreme court. Garzón told the investigating magistrate, Luis Alaez, that he suffered a "lapse of concentration" as he approached the curve when the train should have been slowed to 80 km per hour.

On 28 July 2013, Garzón Amo was charged with 79 counts of homicide by professional recklessness and an undetermined number of counts of causing injury by professional recklessness.

Court investigators said that the driver was speaking on the telephone to staff at Renfe about the route to Ferrol, and consulting a map or document, shortly before the brakes were activated and that he did apply the brakes, but not in time to achieve the safe speed limit for the curve.

Corrective actions

In the immediate aftermath of the accident, the Spanish rail authority Adif installed three ASFA ("Automatic Braking and Announcement of Signals" in English) balises on 1.9 km of the approach to Santiago de Compostela to enforce speed limits of 160, 60 and 30 km/h, to prevent trains from reaching the 2013 accident point at a speed that would cause a similar derailment. Balises are track-mounted programmable transponders which communicate with the on-board computers on Spanish high-speed trains, and which can cause an automatic brake application if speed restrictions are not obeyed.

Adif is reviewing other similar sections of Spain's rail network for possible similar speed-restricting installations.