New recording of Spanish rail-crash driver revealed

A recording has emerged in Spanish media of a phone call made by a train driver moments after his train derailed in northern Spain, killing 79 people.

Francisco Jose Garzon is heard telling a colleague he was travelling at 190km/h instead of 80km/h and became distracted.

He also said he had previously complained that the bend, where the accident happened, was "inhuman".

"There must be many injured, [the train] has turned over, I can't get out of the cabin," he is heard telling a colleague at Madrid's central station.

During the conversation, Mr Garzon repeatedly says "poor passengers", adding: "I hope no-one has died."

The driver and the state-owned railway firm Renfe are on trial over the crash.

Magistrate Luis Alaez has charged Mr Garzon with "79 counts of homicide and numerous offences of bodily harm committed through professional recklessness". The driver is not in jail but remains under court supervision.

The accident, which happened during the evening on 24 July near the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela, is one of the worst rail disasters in Spanish history.

All eight carriages of the train careered off the tracks into a concrete wall as they sped around the curve on the express route between Madrid and the port city of Ferrol on the Galician coast.

Some 170 people were wounded in the crash.

El Pais newspaper obtained a recording of the phone call Mr Garzon made to activate the emergency protocol after the Alvia train smashed into the wall, caught fire, and derailed on 24 July.