At least four people were killed and 47 others injured after the derailment of a train in O Porrino, close to the city of Pontevedra in the region of Galicia in northwest Spain. The Portuguese driver was among the dead. The train had departed from Vigo, Galicia and was bound for Oporto, Portugal.
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Among the injured were other Spaniards, Americans and Portuguese as well as people from Argentina, Germany, Britain, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile – none of whom suffered serious injury.
At least four people died and around 50 were injured yesterday when a train came off the tracks in northwestern Spain on its way to Portugal, just as it was approaching a station. Studies estimated over 500 people died in the Torre del Bierzo tragedy where three trains collided inside a tunnel. The front vehicle came off the track and crashed into an electricity pylon, crushing the engineer’s cab.
It said emergency services had dispatched doctors to the scene via helicopters.
Railway and track management company Adif said the accident had happened just before the train arrived in the station. She added that the train looked old.
Ramon Gonzalez, a man interviewed by Spanish television who works in the station cafeteria near the accident, questioned why the train derailed.
Adif has opened an investigation into the causes of the accident, while Spanish Secretary of State for Infrastructures Julio Gomez-Pomar explained that maintenance work was being carried out at the scene of the accident, which meant that all trains on the route had been using a provisional track.
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The train’s data-recorder showed it was traveling around twice the speed limit of 80km per hour when it went around a bend in the track. One was said to be a USA tourist who died on the train but no further details were given about their identity.
