Spain arrested the driver of the train that crashed two days ago in the northwest killing 80 people, as judicial and government investigations focus on whether he was speeding.
The accident occurred during the culmination of the city’s St. James festivities, the Christian religious ceremony and popular festival that commemorates the saint known in Spanish as Santiago.
The driver was, however, detained Thursday evening in the hospital where he was treated and is being interrogated, said a Spanish police official today who asked not to be named. The Public Works Ministry ordered a probe from an independent body that looks into rail accidents, as the train wasn’t on high-speed track when it crashed and may have exceeded the 80 kilometers (50 miles) per hour limit, a ministry spokeswoman said by phone.
