Santiago rail tragedy: Injured MP says the government and rail board should be held accountable, not the driver

Teresa Gómez Limón was travelling on the ill-fated train from the capital destined for the northernmost Galicia port city of Ferrol on July 24 when it derailed at high speed, killing 79 people and injuring over 170.

The MP, who was returning to Ferrol to spend some time on holiday with her family after having been to an assembly meeting in Madrid, said minister Ana Pastor 'should have made sure the trains and lines were completely safe'.

And she does not believe the driver was at fault, saying the issue was the inferior braking system on the track.

“José Blanco [former socialist minister of public works until November 2011], when he cut the red tape on the new high-speed line linking Galicia with Madrid, did so without the correct safety measures in place, which to me, is fraud.

“But when Ana Pastor took over, she should have taken it upon herself to really investigate rail safety, particularly on high-speed lines where the risk is much greater,” Gómez Limón stated in a recent interview.

She adds that the minister should have fired the CEOs of rail boards ADIF (Gonzalo Ferre) and RENFE (Julio Gómez-Pomar) 'on principle' for their 'political duty of care', which she states is 'a borderline criminal issue' and that this will be confirmed during the forthcoming trials in court.

Relatives and surviving victims of the crash have already testified, and the judge has now called for key staff at ADIF and RENFE to attend hearings.

“I'm not saying they're criminally liable – the judge will have to decide that – but they are certainly liable under civil law and politically liable. They are people who earn exceptionally high salaries for exactly that reason – for the level of responsibility they are expected to bear – and this means that they should be the ones held accountable because they are the highest figureheads in the company hierarchy,” Sra Gómez Limón continued.

“The driver may be partly responsible because he admits he lost track of which line he was on and did not realise he had left the high-speed track and entered the regional one, or whatever, but he is not solely responsible. In a high-speed train which can reach speeds of 300 kilometres per hour, as far as I'm concerned, it’s not good enough for there only to be one driver – even in long-distance coaches, there's a driver and an assistant. And that aside, there were simply no safety systems in place.

“It's not good enough that three days after the accident they decided to put in signposts and stricter rules. Three days earlier, and they could have saved 79 lives.”

Asked how her own party would take the criticisms she had publicly proffered them, Sra Gómez Limón said: “When it's a question of life or death, it's not an issue of political persuasion. It's about how the public have a right to be assured of their safety, no matter which party is in charge of this.”

The MP, who suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries in the crash, said she is recovering 'very gradually' and 'taking it slowly', both in physical and psychological terms, from an experience she describes as 'brutal'.