Driver detained as investigators probe Spain train crash; dozens hospitalized

The driver of a train that derailed in northwestern Spain, killing at least 78 people, is under detention and is being investigated for "a crime," the regional police chief said Friday.

Investigations into the cause of the crash are still under way, but suggestions that the train was traveling too fast have come to the fore.

Police are guarding the hospital bed where the driver was placed in detention Thursday afternoon, Maria Pardo Rios, a spokeswoman for the Galicia regional supreme court.


Investigators are expected to ask the train driver, who is under formal investigation, more questions on Friday. The case has not yet been turned over by police to judicial authorities, she said.

Galicia regional police chief Jaime Iglesias on Friday confirmed that the driver is under police detention because of "a crime."

Asked the follow-up question, "What crime?" he responded: "Well ... in connection to the accident, in connection with his recklessness, in connection with causing the accident."

The crash on the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela, a city popular with tourists and Christian pilgrims, late Wednesday shocked the Galician region and the nation.

The crumpled wreckage of the eight train cars sent careering onto their sides when the train derailed has now been removed from the tracks, but the grim task of identifying the dead continues.

A spokeswoman for the Galician regional government  said at least 78 people are confirmed dead and the number could rise to 80. Of the dead, 72 have been identified, she said.

A spokeswoman for the department of health in the Galicia region said 81 people are still being treated in hospitals, 31 of them in a critical condition. Of those 31, three are children.

Those hospitalized include 31 from Galicia, 38 from other Spanish regions and eight from Argentina, Colombia, Peru, the United States and Britain. The nationalities of four others have not been established.

An American woman named as Ana-Maria Cordoba from Arlington, Virginia, is among the dead. And at least five other U.S. citizens were injured, said State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf.

The unidentified remains will be sent for DNA testing in Madrid, police Superintendent Antonio del Amo said at a news conference Friday. The process could take days or even weeks, he said.

Conflicting accounts have emerged in the past two days over the number of people killed and injured. Del Amo explained the confusion by pointing out that the operation was very complex and involved a difficult accident scene