This Wednesday, the Prosecutor’s Office filed an appeal against the ruling of the Provincial Court of A Coruña, regarding the derailment of an Alvia train in July 2013 that left 80 deadin which he demands the conviction of only the train driver and the acquittal of a technical director of the infrastructure firm Adif.
This is indicated by the Prosecutor’s Office in a statement about the sentence of July 26, which sentenced two and a half years in prison for the machinist Francisco José Garzón Amo and the then director of traffic safety at Adif Andrés Cortabitarte.
The derailment occurred on the afternoon of July 24, 2013 on a curve at the arrival of the train from Madrid to the Santiago de Compostela station when The train was going more than 190 kilometers per hour in a section limited to 80and as a result, 80 passengers died and one hundred and a half were injured out of the total of 224 people who were on board.
The Prosecutor’s Office challenges part of the judicial resolution alleging that The then head of Adif “did not commit any crime due to recklessness.”
The prosecutor of the case, Mario Pineiroin June of last year in the conclusions of the oral hearing of the process, surprised the victims’ lawyers by change its initial position of condemning the technical director of Adif to absolving him.
It is on that line now the appeal of the sentence that has been presented “after meeting the board of prosecutors of this area and unanimously agreeing on the response to the sentenceafter assessing and studying in detail the technical aspects of the appeal,” states the Santiago de Compostela Prosecutor’s Office.
Renfe requested a mitigating circumstance for the driver
Last Tuesday, Renfe appealed the sentence, requesting for the driver, Francisco Garzón, mitigating compensation for the damagehaving paid compensation before the trial.
In his appeal, to which Europa Press has had access, Renfe requested for Garzón the extenuating compensation for the damage provided for in article 21.5 of the Penal Codetrying to ensure that this request does not interfere with the defense strategy that the train driver’s lawyers carry out.
Thus, Renfe stressed that the driver “from the first moment of the accident”, even while still inside the cabin, He recounted what had happened during a phone call and expressed his “utmost concern.” for the status of the victims.
Besides, disagreed with the ruling of the Santiago court, which indicates that it was the Renfe insurance companies that paid compensation to the victims “from the first moments” after the accident, indicating that “the mitigation of criminal responsibility by the economic reparation of the damage caused by the crime requires that the effort come from the defendant himself and not from his employer’s insurance company than with full payment”.
However, Renfe expressed its disagreement, since Garzón is a worker “who cannot face the civil liability of an accident of this magnitude.” “We are facing an incident with a margin of economic discussion between 22 and more than 50 million euros,” criticized the company.
“It doesn’t seem reasonable to us,” highlights Renfe
“According to the thesis of the ruling, there would be practically no possibility that it could be understood that a worker immersed in an accident could be covered by a mitigating circumstance like the one we are dealing with. It would not matter the attitude and behavior of the accused, nothing would be sufficient for this purpose. It doesn’t seem reasonable to us,” the company insists.
“We consider that the sentence we are appealing has not taken into account that it is not possible for Mr. Garzón to react more proactively after the unfortunate incident at hand. With his actions he made it easier for the victims to be cared for and repaired to the extent possible. An accident of this magnitude cannot be dealt with by an individual in a better way. Therefore, we consider that the mitigating circumstance provided for in article 21.5 of the Penal Code should be applied,” highlights Renfe.
The firm also appealed to the insurance contract, insisting that Garzón was an insured under the policy and in fact “was treated within the scope of coverage established therein.” “We are therefore not in a relationship in which neither the accused, nor Renfe nor its insurer are third parties outside the framework of the coverage granted by the plaintiff in civil law in compliance with the contractual provisions with Renfe,” he added.
For all these reasons, he asked the court to consider his appeal and that the mitigating circumstance to repair the damage for Garzón was collected.
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