Nine years after a high-speed train crash that killed 80 and injured over 140, a major trial opens on Wednesday to determine responsibility in Spain's worst rail disaster in nearly eight decades. The accident happened on the evening of July 24, 2013, when a train travelling from Madrid veered off the tracks as it hurtled round a sharp bend on the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela, a city in the northwestern region of Galicia. It was Spain's deadliest train tragedy since 1944, when hundreds were killed in a collision which also happened on the Madrid-Galicia line.
The trial, which is due to run until February 2023 and will hear from 669 witnesses, will take place at a cultural centre in Santiago.
The centre has been transformed into a courtroom to accommodate the large numbers of lawyers and civil parties involved in the hearing. - AFP
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