Spain transport minister says he won't resign over high-speed rail disaster
0 / 31
English
中文
Spain's transport minister says he won't resign over the high-speed rail collision that has left at least 69 people dead. Óscar Puente told a news conference in Madrid he had "nothing to hide" while repeating the government's vow to get to the bottom of the disaster, saying many questions needed to be answered.
（暂无翻译）
"My duty right now is not to talk about whether I should remain in my position, but to resolve the problem," Puente said.
（暂无翻译）
The transport minister has been facing calls to step down in the aftermath of the tragedy, including from political rivals, a trade union and demonstrators who protested outside the transport ministry on Wednesday night.
（暂无翻译）
Dozens were killed and many more injured when a state-operated Renfe high-speed train smashed into the back of another stationary train operated by the Iryo company near the town of Urda, in the central Toledo province, on Wednesday morning.
（暂无翻译）
A preliminary report released by transport investigators late on Thursday found the Renfe train was travelling between 160km/h (99.4mph) and 200km/h when the collision occurred, causing its front carriage to become embedded in the tail of the stationary train.
（暂无翻译）
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said earlier on Friday that public trust in Spain's high-speed rail network had been broken and repeated it was "unacceptable" that there had been two similar tragedies within a year.
（暂无翻译）
In January a collision on the same Madrid-Seville route killed 46 people in Adamuz in southern Spain.
（暂无翻译）
Wednesday's tragedy was one of the worst rail disasters in Europe's modern history, and Spain's worst crash since 2013.
（暂无翻译）
Puente said on Wednesday a computer failure at about 08:30 that morning led to the initial halt of six moving trains, including the two trains that subsequently collided.
（暂无翻译）
Leaked audio recordings published in Spanish media revealed conversations between train drivers and a control centre just minutes before the crash.
（暂无翻译）
Three audio recordings between Madrid's control centre and two train drivers appear to show that one high-speed train was given clearance to move even though another train had stalled on the track, about 25km (15 miles) ahead.
（暂无翻译）
Puente had said that the decision to instruct the trains to move again, without any speed restrictions, was "inexplicable".
（暂无翻译）
The leaking of the audio recordings has been criticised by some Spanish politicians, with Alberto Ibáñez, a member of Congress for the left-wing Sumar platform, writing on X that they were "despicable".
（暂无翻译）
Meanwhile, Irene Montero - the prime ministerial candidate for the left-wing Podemos party - said responsibility for the crash should not be placed on one worker, adding that train drivers and experts have been warning against the liberalisation of the railway sector for years.
（暂无翻译）
Watch: Sister of missing Spain train crash passenger on desperation for updates On Friday Puente said he was "not going to use any worker as a shield".
（暂无翻译）
But he said "many questions" arose as a result of the tragedy and he wanted to look at them "one by one".
（暂无翻译）
"If the investigation shows there is human error we will act in consequence of that," he said.
（暂无翻译）
The conservative People's Party joined calls for Puente's resignation after trade union CSIF called for the same earlier this week.
（暂无翻译）
But Puente said on Friday he would not budge from his position.
（暂无翻译）
"The easy thing for me would be to leave, but neither that fits with my character nor is it what the Prime Minister has asked me to do," he said.
（暂无翻译）
"I feel immense pain and immense sadness for the victims and their relatives...
（暂无翻译）
I cannot let this pain paralyse me though.
（暂无翻译）
We have to find solutions to this problem." The country is observing three days of mourning, as the families of victims and the survivors of the crash struggle to comprehend how it could have happened. A 24-year-old athlete and a former government minister are among the victims of Wednesday's disaster, but many families are still waiting for information from authorities about their loved ones.
（暂无翻译） （暂无翻译） （暂无翻译）
Esther San Emeterio, whose 54-year-old brother Pepe is still missing, told reporters in Toledo, near Urda, that officials were forcing families to wait in "uncertainty".
（暂无翻译）
"We went to bed crying, outraged and full of shame," she said.
（暂无翻译）
"We are desperate and I want all of Spain to know.
（暂无翻译）
How can they keep us like this?" Additional reporting by Sergi Forcada Freixas We look at how the deadly train crash happened, the rescue operation and the aftermath. Shock of rail tragedy gives way to sorrow and outrage in politically divided Spain Audio reveals exchanges between Spain train operators and drivers moments before deadly crash
（暂无翻译） （暂无翻译） （暂无翻译）
仅供学习使用，如有侵权请联系删除 · 查看原文