Driver of the Spanish train that derailed in the city of Santiago de Compostela killing 79 people last week was speaking on his phone when the accident occurred, a Spanish court has found.
Francisco Jose Garzon, the driver has been accused of manslaughter caused by recklessness. He received a call from the staff of the rail company Renfe to discuss the route he needed to follow.
The court made the ruling after analysing the train's data recorders, which register speed, distances and other data. The train was running at 192 km per hour in a curve with speed limit of 80 km.
Accident occurred shortly before 9 p.m. on Wednesday (July 25) when all eight carriages of the high-speed passenger train ran off the tracks.
The train which was traveling from Madrid to the Galician port of Ferrol derailed just a few hundred meters beyond the cut-off point for the European Rail Traffic Management System.
Colleagues have described the 52-year-old Garzon as an experienced railwayman who had worked for Spain's national rail company, Renfe, for around 30 years
According to Renfe, there were 218 passengers and five railway staff on the train involved. It is Spain's worst rail accident for more than 40 years.
(with input from IANS)
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