Spain derailed train had no technical problems: official

PanARMENIAN.Net - The head of Spain's public railways says the crew of the train which derailed at high speed last month killing 79 people had not reported any problems before the crash, BBC News reported.

Renfe chief Julio Gomez-Pomar was speaking to a parliamentary panel about the crash near Santiago de Compostela.

The derailment on July 24 also left about people 170 injured. Train driver Francisco Jose Garzon Amo is under investigation but has not been formally charged.

"Throughout the journey there is no record of communication from the train to the monitoring centre to report any damage or abnormality," Gomez-Pomar said.

He said all normal security procedures had been followed and that the driver had not been on duty more than the standard number of hours, having just returned to work after two days off.

The parliamentary session is not expected to look at the causes of the accident, the BBC says. Instead, MPs will ask what measures have been taken since then to improve safety.

Among the issues the rail chiefs are likely to be asked about are procedures for communication between rail company employees.

The train's "black box" data recorder has revealed that Garzon was talking to a colleague on his work phone and consulting documents just before the derailment.

Judicial authorities have said the train was travelling at 192km/h (119mph) - more than twice the speed limit - on the bend where it derailed.

All eight carriages careered off the tracks on the express route between Madrid and the port city of Ferrol on the Galician coast.