Last Friday, the Audiencia Provincial de A Coruña acquitted Andrés Cortabitarte, former Safety in Circulation Director at Adif, for the Alvia derailment at Angrois on 24 July 2013, which claimed 80 lives and injured 144.
The court upheld the two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for driver Francisco Garzón for gross negligence: the train entered a curve limited to 80 km/h at 200 km/h while he was on a work-related phone call.
The ruling has incensed victims and rail staff, particularly drivers, most of whom know that an active ERTMS would have prevented the smash.
ERTMS Expert Views
The line, like all high-speed routes (bar Madrid-Sevilla), was fitted with the European Train Control System (ERTMS). Unlike the Spanish ASFA, it applies the emergency brake automatically for speed excesses.
In June 2012, the onboard ERTMS on the Class 730 was disabled due to persistent gremlins: memory overload and failure to read initial balises on the Ourense-Santiago stretch, triggering uncommanded stops and delays (forcing speeds up to 25 km/h below line speed in certain stretches).
Renfe prioritised punctuality on the newly opened line (2011), reverting to ASFA; Adif, under Cortabitarte and chairman Gonzalo Ferre Molt, greenlit the switch—initially for a month, but it stayed off until the derailment (July 2013).
Experts slam the safety downgrade for “economic reasons”. Key specialists’ take:
- César Mariñas Dávila, telecoms engineer and court expert: “Had ERTMS been live to km 88, the accident would never have happened”.
- Frans Heijnen, specialist for Renfe’s insurer QBE: ERTMS monitors and brakes for speed breaches.
- Ángel Luis Sanz Cubero, signalling-savvy driver: “Inconceivable” to leave A Grandeira curve without auto-protection.
- Jaime Tamarit and Jorge Iglesias of Cédex: Disconnecting ERTMS ramped risk “a millionfold”; it would have stopped the train in time.
Ineco Warning Ignored
As early as 2010-2011, the public engineering company Ineco engineers flagged issues with Class 730 stock without ERTMS on Ourense-Santiago transitions during pre-commissioning trials.
They advised against running without it—but the warning fell on deaf ears. ERTMS was binned without a specific risk assessment for that curve.
Legal Grounds for Acquittal
The majority ruling (two of three judges) at A Coruña Provincial Court clears Cortabitarte on three key grounds:
- No clear rule mandated it: In 2011, no Spanish or EU law required extra risk study. They followed standard procedure: disable onboard ERTMS, retain ASFA. Under then-norms, it was an acceptable risk, on the driver’s shoulders. No duty, no liability.
- No causality proof: Spanish criminal law demands “near-certainty” that the skipped analysis would have reinstated ERTMS on track and nixed human error. Despite specialists, the defence sowed enough doubt. No proof, no crime.
- 2011 hindsight-free view: The bench judges on period data, sans “retrospective bias” from the crash.
Dissenting Vote
In an 85-point particular vote, magistrate Marta Canales Gantes dissents: CENELEC EU norms obliged risk evaluation pre-line opening. Skipping it dumped all burden on the driver and eroded safety.
She notes Cortabitarte signed the safety cert on 7 December 2011 without verifying compliance, and authorised ERTMS disconnect.
Aftermath
The sentence is final, no appeal possible. Pre-Law 41/2015 (live from Dec 2015), Provincial Court appeals were binding.
Post-2015, casation to Supreme Court is viable only for law breaches (art. 849.1 LECrim: substantive penal errors, with casational interest).
Renfe and QBE face over €22m (£18m) in compo; victims brand it “appalling”, Adif hails it.