If anything is clear to us from the terrible accident in Urda (Toledo) in which at least 69 people died, it is that a chain of errors occurred that caused an AVE train to collide with an Erio stopped on the track at speeds of 160 to 200 km/h. In this chain of errors, Minister Oscar Puente focused on a very specific one: the order was given to AVE by the person in charge of circulation.
Now unions defend that the transport ministry did not hesitate to point the finger directly at the worker, demanding Puente’s resignation and calling the leaked audios “interesting”.
press conference. In particular, the one given by Oscar Puente on the afternoon of October 28, the day of the fatal collision between an AVE and an Erio traveling in the same direction on the Andalusian high-speed corridor. It was there, for the first time, that Transport Minister Atocha noticed Adif Karmi from the CRC.
“It’s inexplicable,” with the words Puente described the railway controller’s decision to order the AVE to operate “normally” when signaling indicated it could not run and he stopped an Erio on the track a few kilometers ahead.
At that point, Puente pointed to the operator as one of the most responsible for the accident even though he had intervened because the LZB system had fallen on line for more than 60 kilometers.
“We find them pathetic.”. Response of Railway Circulation Union (SCF). It is strong. When asked about Puente’s statement at the press conference on the first day, SCF spokeswoman Ana Maria Gallistio gave the following answer:
“Oscar Puente’s statement seems sad to us. A few hours after the accident and an investigation that started, he dared to publicly punish a worker, the most vulnerable in the system… Whether he is guilty or not, a judge has to say. In every company, when something goes wrong, the employer seems to be the most responsible and the most responsible in naming the railway. The audios of these tragic accidents are also conveniently filtered to reinforce this lynching of the worker.
Audio. This is another major allegation leveled against the Transport Ministry. And on the same day of the crash, as night fell, audios from the Atocha CRC were leaked to the press. being chained This is the first medium to have access to said audios In them you can hear a conversation between the driver and the person in charge of traffic which gives misleading information. At one point, you can hear how he instructs the AVE that hits Iryo to perform at “normal speed”.
These audios are labeled as “interesting” by SCF to remove the main problem: the collapse of the LZB system. Filtering, in addition, puts the focus on the employee’s performance and promotes that one can judge the employee’s work even though they do not have the knowledge to do so. The employee’s voice is also not distorted, so this person can be recognized by it.
Reject the union. SCF is not the only union that has shown rejection of the leaked audios and a focus on workers. Statements collected by UGT indicated 20 minutes That “it completely rejects us and we are going to investigate who it is, how it happened and why, and we condemn it categorically.”
In the same article, Pepa Page, “No worker should focus on the last link without knowing the conditions under which he is working,” said General Secretary, Railway Sector, CCOO. The latter is, in fact, a constant demand of the SCF, who warned Adif on two occasions that there was a shortage of staff.
Ana Maria Gallistio, SCF, focused on this in the statement Xataka:
“There is a lack of staff that we have been condemning for years. The public offers are not enough, they have only worked to replace those who enter by those who leave (generational change). But they do not represent the real growth that allows us to meet the needs of our services. The evolution of the railway activity has not had a proportionate increase in human resources”
resignation. Oscar Puente’s statement and the working conditions suffered by workers in Atocha prompted unions to call for Oscar Puente’s resignation. These are statements made by the Center for Independent Trade Unions and Civil Servants (CSIF) but also by the CCOO Railway Union Division. In both cases, the focus is said to be on the worker to be used as a scapegoat.
For now, in his last press conference, Oscar Puente denied that he was considering resigning. “My way of being responsible is to show my face,” he said.
Angrois. Keeping operators at the scene, regardless of their working conditions, was already done with the Angroys rail accident. In it, 80 people died when an Alvia derailed on the Grandeira curve at Angrois (Santiago de Compostela). The driver of the train, Francisco Garzon, was responsible for this. At trial, Adif Traffic Safety Director Garzón and Andrés Cortabitarte were sentenced to 2 years, 6 months and 1 day in prison for 79 murders.
Although both were blamed, it was confirmed that the sign was inadequate before reaching the 80 km/h deceleration curve warning. Even other train drivers confirmed to the inquiry that they took their own visual reference because there was insufficient prior signalling.
Just like this time, it didn’t take long for the audios to leak out where the driver can be heard regretting exceeding his maximum speed.
Picture | Ministry of Transport
In Xataka | An Erio stopped in the middle of the road and an AVE over 40 km/h: two questions to be resolved in the Toledo accident
