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Eleven years and two days after the tragedy, a court in the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela, in northwestern Spain, found the two men guilty of involuntary manslaughter, finding that they “breached the duty of care imposed on them by their positions.”

Their negligence “unlawfully increased the risk” for train passengers, the court added, banning them from practising their profession for four and a half years and ordering them to pay compensation to the civil parties, through insurance, of more than 25 million euros (27 million dollars).

On July 24, 2013, the high-speed train Alvia 04155 derailed shortly before its arrival in Santiago and crashed brutally on a sharp curve protected by a concrete wall, four kilometers from its destination.

The accident, which occurred on the eve of the Santiago festival, which brings together thousands of pilgrims in the Galician city every year, also left more than 140 injured.

It was the worst railway tragedy in Spain since 1944, when three trains collided in a tunnel in the province of León, leaving more than a hundred dead.

The verdict “proves us right after 11 years of struggle,” said Jesús Domínguez, president of the association of victims of the accident on public channel TVE, and although he said that those affected are “satisfied,” he criticized the delay of the courts: “Slow justice is no justice.”

“The most basic of precautions”

The investigation quickly determined that the train was travelling at an excessive speed – 179 km/h instead of the 80 km/h limit marked for that section – and the driver was speaking on the telephone with the train inspector just before the accident.

In its 530-page ruling, the court established the direct responsibility of the train driver, Francisco Garzón, and a former security officer of the public company Ferroviarias Infrastructure Administrator (Adif), Andrés Cortabitarte, in the deaths of 79 of the 80 people who died.

The 80th victim, who was injured in the accident and died 73 days later from a serious illness, was counted among the injured and should therefore be compensated.

Garzón, who was talking on the phone just before the accident, failed to take “the most basic precautions” by answering the call without taking into account “the place where he was,” the court found.

This negligence, which led him to activate the train’s emergency brake four seconds late, is all the more serious given that he “knew” the line and knew that a very “significant” reduction in speed was necessary at that location, the ruling insisted.

Cortabitarte also failed to take into account the risks in this section of the line: The tragedy would not have occurred if “measures had been taken to control the speed of the train” and “to draw the driver’s attention.”

Tears and apologies

During the trial, which ran from October 2022 to July 2023, the prosecution initially requested four years in prison for each of the two men, but ended up withdrawing its request for Cortabitarte.

The amount of compensation claimed by the victims’ families amounted to 58 million euros.

During the trial, Garzón tearfully apologized to the victims and, although he acknowledged his responsibility, questioned the lack of an automatic braking system at the scene of the accident.

Cortabitarte, who assured in court that the line was “100%” safe, was attacked by relatives of the victims.

In total, 600 witnesses and experts testified at the mega trial.

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