The Adjusted Normal 40. A Sad Legacy
Today is the sad anniversary of the train accident at Angrois, entering Santiago. Seven years ago, on a misty eve of the Apostle St. James, a train came around a sharp curve at almost two hundred kilometers per hour, where the limit was eighty. It derailed, car piled upon car, and eighty people died, a hundred forty four were injured.
That night, the revellers awaiting the fireworks in front of St. James cathedral were told there would be no fireworks and no joy. Neighbors climbed down to the train tracks and tried to help people out of the wreckage. Others brought blankets and coffee to comfort stricken passengers. Ambulances came and went continuously, and firefighters and local police crawled through the crumpled cars, searching for survivors.
It was one of the worst accidents in Spanish rail history. The worst happened back in January, 1944, in Torre del Bierzo, where a mail and passenger train collided head on with a locomotive inside a tunnel, and another cargo train rammed into the locomotive from behind. It was just before Epiphany, and the train from Madrid to A Coruña was overly full, with people who wanted to be with family. Officially, 78 people died. But those times were the times of Franco, and the one thing he didn't want was Spain to look like a backwards third world country. Historians believe that between five hundred and eight hundred people died in the fiery inferno inside the tunnel that day.
As road accidents go, one of the deadliest happened just outside the seaside campground Los Alfaques, in Tarragona, in July, 1978. A tanker truck driver decided to fill his tanker with four tons more propylene gas than it should have held. He took the coastal road to avoid tolls on the highway. The reasons could have been many, either the driver's proper decision, or a push from the boss so there would be one less trip. By the time it reached the area of the campground, the tank was leaking in the hot summer's day, creating a white cloud. Part of that cloud reached a discotheque, where it found an ignition source.
That day, 217 people died in the ensuing explosion, most of them foreign tourists. Over the following months, 270 more died as a result of their injuries. The scene was dantesque, with people on fire running into the sea. Many of the dead were in their bathing suits, and their identification papers were in cars that were completely destroyed. It took many months before all were identified, and even so, there is still a Colombian family interred in the local cemetery that was never sent home.
All of these accidents have something similar: few, if any, of the truly guilty were ever charged, or even served much prison. And the reasons for the accidents are generally to be seen in the cutting of corners and flouting of safety laws, and common sense, that is so special to Spanish culture. The last, Angrois in 2013, had a driver talking on a cell phone, and a previous commission deciding that the safety measures in that specific area did not have to be more rigid, despite the tracks exiting a tunnel where the speed would have been well over a hundred kilometers per hour, and approaching a sharp curve of almost ninety degrees.
Knowing what humans are like, it's not likely to be the last bad accident in Spain, but, hopefully, safety measures and common sense might help prevent the next one from taking too many lives.
Life continues.
That night, the revellers awaiting the fireworks in front of St. James cathedral were told there would be no fireworks and no joy. Neighbors climbed down to the train tracks and tried to help people out of the wreckage. Others brought blankets and coffee to comfort stricken passengers. Ambulances came and went continuously, and firefighters and local police crawled through the crumpled cars, searching for survivors.
It was one of the worst accidents in Spanish rail history. The worst happened back in January, 1944, in Torre del Bierzo, where a mail and passenger train collided head on with a locomotive inside a tunnel, and another cargo train rammed into the locomotive from behind. It was just before Epiphany, and the train from Madrid to A Coruña was overly full, with people who wanted to be with family. Officially, 78 people died. But those times were the times of Franco, and the one thing he didn't want was Spain to look like a backwards third world country. Historians believe that between five hundred and eight hundred people died in the fiery inferno inside the tunnel that day.
As road accidents go, one of the deadliest happened just outside the seaside campground Los Alfaques, in Tarragona, in July, 1978. A tanker truck driver decided to fill his tanker with four tons more propylene gas than it should have held. He took the coastal road to avoid tolls on the highway. The reasons could have been many, either the driver's proper decision, or a push from the boss so there would be one less trip. By the time it reached the area of the campground, the tank was leaking in the hot summer's day, creating a white cloud. Part of that cloud reached a discotheque, where it found an ignition source.
That day, 217 people died in the ensuing explosion, most of them foreign tourists. Over the following months, 270 more died as a result of their injuries. The scene was dantesque, with people on fire running into the sea. Many of the dead were in their bathing suits, and their identification papers were in cars that were completely destroyed. It took many months before all were identified, and even so, there is still a Colombian family interred in the local cemetery that was never sent home.
All of these accidents have something similar: few, if any, of the truly guilty were ever charged, or even served much prison. And the reasons for the accidents are generally to be seen in the cutting of corners and flouting of safety laws, and common sense, that is so special to Spanish culture. The last, Angrois in 2013, had a driver talking on a cell phone, and a previous commission deciding that the safety measures in that specific area did not have to be more rigid, despite the tracks exiting a tunnel where the speed would have been well over a hundred kilometers per hour, and approaching a sharp curve of almost ninety degrees.
Knowing what humans are like, it's not likely to be the last bad accident in Spain, but, hopefully, safety measures and common sense might help prevent the next one from taking too many lives.
Life continues.
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