MADRID: The driver of a Spanish train that derailed killing 79 people told a judge he “didn’t understand” how he failed to brake in time to stop the crash, a recording of his court hearing revealed yesterday.
“I can’t explain. I still don’t understand,” the driver Francisco Jose Garzon Amo told the judge when asked why he hadn’t slowed down in time to take a sharp bend near the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela.
Asked again about what caused him to crash, he added: “I tell you sincerely that I don’t know. Otherwise I would not have been so crazy as not to brake” earlier.
His testimony made during a closed-door hearing on Sunday was recorded and an extract posted online by leading newspaper El Pais.
Judge Luis Alaez released Garzon on bail charged with 79 counts of reckless homicide after the initial hearing, while the court investigates.
The driver told the judge he had braked, but by the time he did so the crash was “inevitable”.
AFP
