On 24 July 2013, an Alvia high-speed train travelling from Madrid to Ferrol, in the north-west of Spain, derailed at high speed on a bend about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) outside the railway station at Santiago de Compostela. Of the 178 people injured, the final number of deaths had reached 78.
The train's data recorder showed that it had been travelling at over twice the posted speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph) when it entered a curve on the track. The crash was recorded on a track-side camera that shows all 13 train cars derailing and four overturning. On 28 July 2013, the train's driver, Francisco José Garzón Amo, was charged with 79 counts of homicide by professional recklessness and an undetermined number of counts of causing injury by professional recklessness.
The crash was Spain's worst rail accident in over 40 years, since a crash near El Cuervo, Seville, in 1972.[note 1] It is also the second-deadliest high-speed train accident in history, after the 1998 Eschede train disaster in Germany.
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 RENFE Class 730 passenger train is in service on this line, as it can run on both conventional and high-speed tracks. The Class 730 also has two generator cars that allow its electric traction motors to function on non-electrified lines, but that bring its weight per axle well over the normal value for high speed trains.
At 20:41 CEST (18:41 UTC) on 24 July 2013, the passenger train, on an express route from Madrid 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. 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.
The train was carrying 218 passengers at the time of the crash. Out of the 218 passengers, there were 79 fatalities (at one point reported as 80 due to a misidentification of some remains) and the remaining 139 were injured. Among the dead there were twelve foreigners. One of the victims was Spanish journalist Enrique Beotas. All four of the crew, including the train's two drivers, were injured but survived.
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, were cancelled.
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.
Exactly one year after the incident, a train on the same line and service was received with applause from local people and the relatives of the dead or injured ones in the crash.
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.
Eyewitnesses said the train was travelling at high speed before derailing. This was confirmed by
data from the train's black box, which 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 four seconds later. In court the train's driver, Garzón Amo, stated that the train was travelling at 180–190 km/h (110–120 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).
Multiple media outlets reported that, in 2012, a year before the accident, Garzón Amo had boasted on his personal Facebook page about the high speeds 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 where 200 km/h (124 mph) is permitted. 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 system did not include a control to make the train slow to the speed limit for the low-speed line before entering it. 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 investigation into the incident focused on whether any of these speed monitoring systems failed and why the originally built-in safety system ETCS/ERTMS had been disconnected.
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. Further charges were brought against safety director Andres Maria Cortabitarte in 2017 for "crimes of homicide and injuries through serious negligence".