Santiago rail tragedy: Four children and 29 adults critical, 80 confirmed dead
Santiago rail tragedy: Four children and 29 adults critical, 80 confirmed dead
THE death toll from the train crash in Galicia has risen to 80, with 33 people in a critical condition in hospital, latest reports show.
Four of them are aged under 15 and remain in the paediatric intensive care unit.
A total of 95 people were admitted to hospital following the devastating accident, eight of whom have since been discharged.
Seven people died in hospital and 73 at the scene, which witnesses described as 'hell on earth' with bodies scattered all over the line.
The Alvia high-speed rail connection was heading to the far northern ship-building town of Ferrol, in Galicia, from Madrid's Chamartín station when it derailed four kilometres south of the pilgrims' cathedral city of Santiago de Compostela.
A video on youtube.com (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccu4bA0CWuw) shows the horrific smash in which it took just 11 seconds for an everyday train journey to become the greatest rail tragedy in Spain's history.
Even the Valencia metro crash in the summer of 2006, said to be the worst underground accident on record and in which 43 people died and 42 were injured, did not reach the scale of Tuesday evening's smash at 20.44hrs.
Whilst travelling round a bend, the middle of the train veered off the edge and crumpled in the middle, colliding with the wall at an estimated speed of 190 kilometres per hour – when the safe limit for the bend is 80 kilometres per hour – whilst the first two carriages were almost sliced in two by a pylon.
Such was the impact that the train carriages broke into pieces and at least 45 were killed outright, with a further 28 losing their lives within minutes and seven in hospital within the next 24 hours.
So far, 67 of the deceased have been identified by their fingerprints, but the names of 13 others are unknown.
The community centre in Fontes do Sar, the nearest town to the site of the crash, has been turned into a makeshift mortuary with covered bodies on tables and floors.
Family members and friends of the fatal victims have complained about lack of information and the fact that they have not been allowed to identify the bodies yet, until post-mortems can be carried out.
Helplines for anyone who knows any of the passengers on the train to call and find out more information have been launched, and should be dialled with 0034 in front from abroad or directly if calling from Spain – 981 551 100, and the free-phone lines 900 101 660 and 900 444 222.
