The European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) will connect in a matter of a week on the line between Ourense and Santiago de Compostela. The connection, which will take place between April 22 and 25, will result in the safety of rail traffic a decade late. And it is that it will provide the track with continuous speed control that nine years and nine months ago would have prevented the accident of the Alvia Madrid-Ferrol train that derailed in the Angrois neighborhood, leaving 80 dead and 144 injured.
The initial project for the line included ERTMS along its entire route, but a change in the initial planning left the final section without this protection, right where the accident occurred. Although the accident and its criminal and civil consequences are still being resolved in the courts of Santiago de Compostela, all the expert reports agree that if that section had had the aforementioned system, the derailment would not have occurred, as it would have stopped the train due to the error. of the machinist
Three months after the tenth anniversary of the accident, on July 24, the victims have been parading for weeks through the civil trial and there they welcomed the news of the installation of ERTMS, although they forget the tragic consequences of its absence.
The spokesperson for the platform for those affected, Jesús Domínguez, acknowledged that he was "very happy" about the activation of ERTMS and vehemently asked that "they not disconnect it" or, at least, before doing so "make the pertinent risk analyzes and take preventive measures", alluding to the fact that the initial project already had it and then its activation was dispensed with and that, in addition, one year before the accident the train's on-board ERTMS was also deactivated due to interference, so that the double protection that the system involved in the initial planning of the control, command and signaling subsystem of this line disappeared without having previously carried out a risk assessment to anticipate its consequences.
Jesús Domínguez insisted that "if you disconnect it due to delays, which was what was done in our case, it will be of little use" and recalled that in the oral trial "it has been shown that if Adif had done its job and had analyzed the risks, both in the commissioning of the line, and when the security system was disconnected, we would not be here.
The train engineer, Francisco José Garzón Amo, and the director of traffic safety at Adif at the time the line was put into operation, Andrés Cortabitarte, are accused of the Alvia accident, both for serious professional negligence. The two face four years in prison and disbarment.
The train driver is accused of having derailed at 179 km/h in a section limited to 80 after being misled by a call with the controller and the security manager having authorized this disconnection of the security system without a prior risk assessment, although the defendant denied that the disconnection had led to a decrease in security.
Precisely, the former head of security of the European Railway Agency (ERA), Christopher Carr, pointed out during the trial last December that, in this case, "we had a catastrophic risk that could be mitigated with three options: maintaining the ERTMS of the original project, reduce the speed at the exit of this system, or a device of punctual supervision ». That is, the danger would have been avoided if the system that is now activated had been installed.
The connection of the ERTMS at its level 1 in the Atlantic axis and in the surroundings of the Santiago station will force Adif to interrupt the circulation of trains for three days, between April 22 and 24.
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