The engineer operating the Argentine train that crashed last week killing 51 passengers blamed the brakes for failing, after he repeatedly warned they were faulty, a judicial source said Saturday.
The engineer, Marcos Cordoba, is being investigated by police, but was free after being treated at a hospital.
He told police he reported brake problems to his supervisors, but that he was ordered to continue the trip that ended in the third-worst rail accident in Argentine history.
Another 703 people were injured on Wednesday, when the train slammed into a bumper at Buenos Aires’ Terminal 11. The train carried about 2,000 people.
Among the injured was the 28-year-old engineer, who had to be cut out of the locomotive cab by firefighters. He was hospitalized for cuts on his face and other injuries, but was out of danger.
The judicial source said Cordoba told investigators: “At each station he advised the dispatcher by radio that he had problems with the brakes.”
He reportedly said he was told to keep going.
Immediately after the accident, Argentine National Transportation Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi said recordings between the engineer and dispatcher would be reviewed by the authorities.
Cordoba is being investigated for what Argentine law describes as the crime of “guilty damage” without an intent to cause harm.
Blood tests showed he had not been drinking or using drugs. He also had a good work record.
Cordoba was free after authorities determined he represented “no flight risk and there is no possibility he might hinder the investigation,” the judicial source said.
Cordoba reportedly said a mechanical failure must have caused the problem because “when the brake is actuated, there’s a valve that makes a noise and he did not hear it,” the judicial source said.
An Argentine association that represents government employees accused the government on Friday of letting passenger rail infrastructure fall into disrepair.
A statement from the group said the government ignored an audit “that showed the deficient and criminal state of preservation” of the Sarmiento rail line, where the accident occurred.
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
‘MONSTROUS CRIME’: The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader who was convinced his son’s illness was caused by voodoo practitioners, a civil organization said Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of “unbearable cruelty.” The killings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, the civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) said. It was the latest act of extreme violence by powerful gangs that control most of the capital in the impoverished Caribbean country mired for decades in political instability, natural disasters and other woes. “He decided to cruelly punish all
NOTORIOUS JAIL: Even from a distance, prisoners maimed by torture, weakened by illness and emaciated by hunger, could be distinguished Armed men broke the bolts on the cell and the prisoners crept out: haggard, bewildered and scarcely believing that their years of torment in Syria’s most brutal jail were over. “What has happened?” asked one prisoner after another. “You are free, come out. It is over,” cried the voice of a man filming them on his telephone. “Bashar has gone. We have crushed him.” The dramatic liberation of Saydnaya prison came hours after rebels took the nearby capital, Damascus, having sent former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fleeing after more than 13 years of civil war. In the video, dozens of
RSS