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发帖数: 3205 | 1 SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain (AP) - A Spanish train that hurtled off the
rails and smashed into a security wall as it rounded a bend was going so
fast that carriages tumbled off the tracks like dominos, killing 80 people,
according to eyewitness accounts and video footage obtained Thursday.
An Associated Press analysis of video images suggests that the train may
have been traveling at twice the speed limit for that stretch of track.
Spain's government said two probes have been launched into the cause of
Wednesday night's crash near this Christian festival city in northwest Spain
. The Interior Ministry raised the death toll to 80 in what was Spain's
deadliest train wreck in four decades, while 95 remained hospitalized, 36 in
critical condition, among them four children.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a native of Santiago de Compostela, toured the
crash scene alongside rescue workers and went to a nearby hospital to visit
those wounded and their families.
"For a native of Santiago, like me, this is the saddest day," said Rajoy,
who declared Spain would observe a three-day period of mourning. He said
judicial authorities and the Public Works Ministry had launched parallel
investigations into what caused the crash.
Eyewitness accounts backed by security-camera footage of the moment of
disaster suggested that the eight-carriage train was going too fast as it
tried to turn left underneath a road bridge. The train company Renfe said
218 passengers and five crew members were on board. Spanish officials said
the speed limit on that section of track is 80 kilometers (50 miles) per
hour.
An Associated Press estimate of the train's speed at the moment of impact
using the time stamp of the video and the estimated distance between two
pylons gives a range of 144-192 kph (89-119 mph). Another estimate
calculated on the basis of the typical distance between railroad ties gives
a range of 156-182 kph (96-112 mph).
The video footage, which the Spanish railway authority Adif said probably
came from one of its cameras, shows the train carriages start to buckle soon
into the turn.
Murray Hughes, consultant editor of Railway Gazette International, said it
appeared that a diesel-powered unit behind the lead locomotive was the first
to derail. The front engine itself quickly followed, violently tipping on
to its right side as it crashes into a concrete security wall and bulldozes
along the ground.
In the background, all the rear carriages can be seen starting to decouple
and come off the tracks. The picture goes blank as the engine appears to
crash directly into the camera.
After impact, witnesses said a fire which engulfed passengers trapped in at
least one carriage most likely from the diesel fuel carried in the
locomotive units.
"I saw the train coming out of the bend at great speed and then there was a
big noise," one eyewitness who lives beside the train line, Consuelo
Domingues, told The Associated Press. "... Then everybody tried to get out
of the train."
Santiago officials had been preparing for the city's internationally
celebrated Catholic festival Thursday but canceled it and took control of
the city's main indoor sports arena to use as a makeshift morgue. There,
relatives of the dead could be seen sobbing and embracing each other.
The U.S. State Department said five American citizens were among the injured.
The Interior Ministry, responsible for law and order, ruled out terrorism as
a cause.
It was Spain's deadliest train accident since 1972, when a train collided
with a bus in southwest Spain, killing 86 people and injuring 112.
"July 24 will no longer be the eve of a day of celebration but rather one
commemorating one of the saddest days in the history of Galicia," said
Alberto Nunez Feijoo, regional president of Galicia. Santiago de Compostela
is its capital.
The accident created a scene that was "Dante-esque," Feijoo said. He said
Galicia would observe seven days of mourning.
Rescue workers spent the night searching through smashed carriages alongside
the tracks.
As dawn broke, cranes brought to the scene were used to lift the carriages
away from the tracks. Rescue workers collected passengers' scattered luggage
and loaded it into a truck next to the tracks.
Rescuers described a scene of horror immediately after the crash. Smoke
billowed from at least one carriage that had caught fire, while another had
been torn into two parts.
Residents of the residential neighborhood closest to the rail line struggled
to help victims out of the toppled cars. Some passengers were pulled out of
broken windows. Television images showed one man atop a carriage lying on
its side, using a pickaxe to try to smash through a window. Other rescuers
used rocks to try to free survivors from the fiery wreckage.
Nearby, rescue workers lined up bodies covered in blankets alongside the
tracks.
State-owned train operator Renfe said the crash happened at 8.41 p.m. (1841
GMT) about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) south of Santiago de Compostela.
Spanish media said the train had two drivers aboard and both survived.
However, Galician court officials said the train had only one driver. Court
spokeswoman Maria Pardo Rios said the driver survived and was expected to
give a statement to police later Thursday. She declined to name the driver
but said he was not being treated as the suspect of a crime.
Renfe said it and Adif, another state-owned company that manages tracks,
signals and other railway infrastructure, were cooperating with a judge
appointed to investigate the accident.
It was the world's third major rail accident this month.
On July 12, six people were killed and nearly 200 were injured when four
cars of a passenger train derailed south of Paris.
On July 6, 72 cars carrying crude oil derailed in Lac-Megantic, Ontario,
setting off explosions and fires that killed 47 people.
Catholic pilgrims converge on Santiago de Compostela annually to celebrate a
festival honoring St. James, a disciple of Jesus whose remains are said to
rest in a shrine. The city is the main gathering point for those who reach
the end of the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route that has drawn
Christians since the Middle Ages.
Several injured passengers said they felt a strong vibration just before the
cars jumped the tracks, according to Xabier Martinez, a photographer who
talked with them after arriving at the scene as rescue workers were still
removing bodies.
One passenger, Ricardo Montero, told the Cadena Ser radio station that "when
the train reached that bend it began to flip over, many times, with some
carriages ending up on top of others, leaving many people trapped below. We
had to get under the carriages to get out."
Another passenger, Sergio Prego, told Cadena Ser the train "traveled very
fast" just before it derailed and the cars flipped upside down, on their
sides and into the air.
"I've been very lucky because I'm one of the few able to walk out," Prego
said.
The Alvia 730 series train started from Madrid and was scheduled to end its
journey at El Ferrol, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Santiago de
Compostela. Alvias operate high-speed services but do not go as fast as
Spain's fastest bullet trains, called AVEs.
The maximum Alvia speed is 250 kph (155 mph) on tracks made especially for
the AVEs, and they travel at a maximum speed of 220 kph (137 mph) on normal
gauge rails.
Other major train crashes in Spain include a 1944 accident involving three
trains that crashed in a tunnel. That disaster produced wildly disputed
death tolls ranging from the government's official count of 78 to more than
500, according to later research.
In 2006, 43 people died when a subway train crashed because of excessive
speed in the southern city of Valencia. In 2004, 191 died when al-Qaida-
inspired terrorists detonated 10 bombs on four Madrid commuter trains. |
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