Matthew Bennett@matthewbennett
A note on (train) accidents in Spain and politicians, after the new Alvia-Iryo crash in Adamuz (Córboda) and (already) another one near Barcelona.
In 2003, in Tobarra, I myself was in a train crash one night coming down from Madrid to Murcia. An old Talgo intercity train. Two ladies died. I survived by a about metre and a half.
The very next day, the politicians, who back then were Aznar and Álvarez Cascos (PP, conservative), along with Renfe, the Spanish rail operator, swore blind that it had been sabotage or that someone had thrown rocks onto the tracks or something along those lines.
The investigation later showed that it had actually been the brake bar underneath the locomotive, which had snapped because of bad maintenance, and then had dug itself into the ground against the rails and suddenly thrown us off the track that cold night.
Ten years later, in 2013, as a journalist, I went up to Angrois (Santiago, Galicia) and spent two weeks interviewing ll sorts of people involved in the Alvia crash there: the firefighters who pulled people out, the head of A&E that night at the regional university hospital, the chief psychologist in Galicia, the coroner, the priest, the neighbours, etc. Then there were the years of that investigation.
Somehow, in some strange way, in the years that followed the Galicia Alvia crash, the woman who was Infrastructure Minister at the time, Ana Pastor (PP, conservative), was then promoted to … Speaker of Congress in Madrid.
Congress notably spent lots of time and energy refusing to investigate the crash properly.
The person who was the engineering project director for the actual crash curve in Angrois curve, where the previous Alvia derailed, was a woman called Isabel Pardo de Vera.
She was later promoted to become....the Chairwoman of Adif, the Spanish rail infrastructure company...and then later still ended up as… Secretary of State for Transport.
The politicain who had actually commissioned the Angrois high-speed project as Infrastructure Minister was Pepe Blanco (PSOE, a socialist).
Years later, as we now know, in the middle of (another Spanish political) corruption case, Blanco flatly denied ever having recommended…Pardo de Vera…for the Chairwoman of Adif appointment.
In Spain, politicians never take the blame for anything.
In my 25 years here, nothing has changed. It doesn't matter if it's the Alvia high-speed train crashes, (Angrois, Adamuz), the Valencia Metro crash, the Yak 42 accident, the Spanair plane crash at Barajas, or the Valencia flash floods two years ago, or any of the others. Nothing changes.
When there are major accidents in Spain, the victims and ordinary citizens always pay the price. The political class never does.
My condolences and a big hug to the new victims in Adamuz and their families.
[The headline in the image is from Spain's version of the BBC a few years ago: "Blanco [socialist, minister] and Pastor [conservative, minister, Speaker] deny plotting to shift blame for the [Angrois] Alvia accident. Blanco rejects accusation of a joint socialist and conservative plot to blame the train driver. Pastor denies she obstructed the investigation into the tragedy at the Ministry of Infrastructure."]
[Note: Pardo de Vera is currently being investigated on five counts of corruption, bribery and criminal organisation in the Koldo case, which affects the Socialist Party and another Infrastructure Minister, Ábalos...who was sent to prison not long ago by the Supreme Court.]
