Barcelona train crash injures 56 during nationwide rail strike
By
Paul Mitchell
29 July 2017
Friday morning at 7:15 a.m. a suburban train travelling from Tarragona in Catalonia ploughed into the buffers at the Estación de Francia (France Station) in the regional capital, Barcelona. Fifty-six people were injured and 21 hospitalised, with one left in a critical condition.
The Barcelona-based La Vanguardia reported that many of the passengers had been standing up, ready to get off, when the crash occurred.
Spain’s minister of public works, Íñigo de la Serna, claimed that the train had passed all its inspections, the last of which was on July 18, and that the driver had seven years’ experience. Catalan regional minister of the territory and sustainability, Josep Rull, said that the train had already slowed down and that “If it had entered at full speed we would have had an accident of unforeseeable consequences.”
Officials in the Metropolitan Transport Safety Area, attached to the Transport Division of the Mossos d’Esquadra (regional police), have already begun an investigation, as has the Commission for Investigation of Railway Accidents, which is part of the Ministry of Public Works. The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) announced legal proceedings had begun.
The crash happened during a one-day national strike of rail workers opposed to attacks on jobs and wages. The General Confederation of Labour (CGT) made clear that it only called the action once the union had “exhausted all the channels of negotiation, the deadlines set by this organization and the patience derived from the goodwill to negotiate.”
The CGT warned that the “lack of response” by Renfe, the state-run train operator, and Adif, responsible for tracks and stations, generates “a…