The Guardia Civil has sent its first report to the investigating judge in Montoro (Córdoba). This report includes the first results of the four-day investigation. There are two train black boxes, 2,500 pictures and videos from the crash site on the Adamuz tracks, and the statement of the driver of the Iryo train, which was the first train to go off the rails that night. According to sources close to the investigation, the Guardia Civil has asked the judge to seal the case in this first report. This will help find out what caused the derailment that killed 45 people.
So far, the main focus of the court investigation has been on finding the victims, getting the autopsy findings, and all the paperwork needed to give the remains back to their families. But this initial preliminary report, as some sources call it, gets the investigation going, and the judge has to start making her first decisions. For instance, whether to shield the case by designating it secret, which would keep any victim or private prosecutor from seeing its contents for at least a month.
Right now, a temporary judge is in charge of the Court of Instruction Number 2 of Montoro (also known as the Court of First Instance of Montoro, Court Number 2, according to the new Efficiency Law that went into effect). She will finish her duties on February 9th, when Cristina Pastor, a judge who has just finished her training at the Judicial School, will take over the case. She will be the permanent judge, and along with a reinforcement judge that the Judiciary has already said it will add, she will be in charge of an investigation that is sure to get a lot of media attention.
For days, agents from the Central Team for Crime Scene Investigations (ECIO) of the Civil Guard’s Criminalistics Service have been on the scene, looking at every detail of the Iryo train 6189, which was going from Málaga to Madrid, and the Renfe Alvia train, which never made it to its destination of Huelva. It is still too early to come to a final conclusion (in fact, some legal sources say that a report with final findings could take up to a year), but some ideas are starting to come up. For example, it is possible that the train accident was caused by the collapse of track 1, where a clean break was found.
The Railway Accident Investigation Commission (CIAF) is also looking into this rail, which may have had a problem that was getting worse and leaving marks on several trains before Sunday afternoon. The problem got so bad that it broke when the Iryo train passed by at 7:43 p.m., which is when the Ministry of Transport says the derailment happened.
So, the investigators have asked the court for permission to close up this part of the track and send it to a facility in Madrid for testing. As stated above, this study will first take place in the capital on Tuesday, January 27th, and both CIAF technicians and Guardia Civil officers, as well as a judge, must be there. The judge in Montoro will have to write a letter to the courts in the capital asking them to send a judge to the exam day.
Lorenzo Del Río, the president of the High Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA), said this Thursday during a visit to the team of judges, lawyers, and officials who have been leading the investigation in the small town in Córdoba province that one of his main concerns was making sure the chain of custody was kept. People close to the investigation agree that it is important to keep the probe perfect so that the victims can find the truths they need without any uncertainty. Don’t forget that a bogie (the lower section of the train car that holds the axles) from car eight of the Iryo train was found in a creek on a hillside 270 metres from the tracks. A photographer for The New York Times said that they told the Civil Guard about this find, but both the Guardia Civil and the Ministry of Transport have said that the section of train had already been found and looked at.
Colonel Fernando Domínguez, head of the Criminalistics Service of the Guardia Civil , said on Thursday that agents have taken statements from the driver of the Iryo train, the crews of both trains, and some passengers in the last few days. The Civil Guard has sent 976 agents from different specialities to the accident site. Adif, the Spanish railway infrastructure manager, has also found and made accessible to the investigators a security camera tape from a train halt in Adamuz.
Author: Derek Appleton
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