A passenger train passes the wreckage of a train in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Saturday July 27, 2013. Spain's interior minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz says the driver whose speeding train crashed, killing 78 people, is now being held on suspicion of negligent homicide. The Spanish train derailed at high speed Wednesday killing 78 and injuring dozens more. (AP Photo/Lalo R. Villar)
A passenger train passes the wreckage of a train in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Saturday July 27, 2013. Spain's interior minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz says the driver whose speeding train crashed, killing 78 people, is now being held on suspicion of negligent homicide. The Spanish train derailed at high speed Wednesday killing 78 and injuring dozens more. (AP Photo/Lalo R. Villar)
Stephen Ward 18 years old, talks during an interview with Associated Press TV in Madrid, Spain Saturday July 27, 2013. Stephen Ward is a young Mormon missionary from Utah who was among the survivors of a deadly Spain train crash. A Spanish train that hurtled off the rails and smashed into a concrete wall as it rounded a bend was going so fast that carriages tumbled off the tracks like dominos, killing 78 people just before arriving in the northwestern shrine city of Santiago de Compostela. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
The Spanish flag, left, and the Galician regional flag, right, fly at half mast on the town hall in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Friday, July 26, 2013. Spanish police said Friday they arrested the driver of the train that blazed far over the speed limit into a curve and toppled over, killing 78 people, and planned to question him as a suspect for "recklessness." (AP Photo/Brais Lorenzo)
Police and security officers look at a wrecked carriage in a train depot in Padron, near Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Friday July 26, 2013 after it was taken there from the scene of a train accident. Investigators have taken possession of the ?black boxes? of the Spanish train that hurtled at high-speed along a curve and derailed, killing 80 people, a court official said Friday. Analysis will be performed to determine why the train was traveling far above the speed limit when it crashed near a station in Santiago de Compostela, in the northwestern Galicia region, said court spokeswoman Maria Pardo Rios. The train?s operator remained hospitalised Friday and will be questioned by police but she said the interview will not happen Friday. (AP Photo/Lalo R. Villar)
In this photo taken on Wednesday July 24 2013, A woman is evacuated from a train car at the site of a train accident in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Spanish police on Friday detained the driver of a train that crashed in northwestern Spain, lowered the death toll from 80 to 78 and took possession of the "black box" of the train expected to shed light on why it was going faster than the speed limit on the curve where it derailed. And in an interview with The Associated Press, an American passenger injured on the train said he saw on a TV monitor screen inside his car that the train was traveling 194 kph (121 mph) seconds before the crash ? far above the 80 kph (50 mph) speed limit on the curve where it derailed. (AP Photo/La Voz de Galicia/Monica Ferreiros)
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain (AP) ? The injured driver of the Spanish train that derailed at high speed, killing 78 and injuring dozens more, was released from the hospital Saturday, but he was still being held in a police station as authorities increasingly focused on his culpability.
Francisco Jose Garzon Amo was to appear before a judge by Sunday evening, a hotly awaited opportunity for him to give his explanation for Spain's deadliest train crash in decades.
Garzon has been under the microscope, with the country's railway agency saying it was his responsibility to brake before going into the high-risk curve where the train careered off the rails and smashed into a wall. It's still not clear whether the brakes failed or were never used, and Garzon has remained mum so far.
"There is rational evidence to lead us to think that the driver could have eventual responsibility," Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz told reporters at the crash site near the Catholic pilgrimage town of Santiago De Compostela.
He said Garzon was now being held on suspicion of negligent homicide. Authorities had previously said he was detained on suspicion of recklessness.
Speaking later at the police station, the minister also said that if Garzon were to choose to give a statement to the police before testifying in front of a judge, his lawyer would be called.
So far the driver has opted to use his constitutional right to remain silent, "although he may change his mind on that," Fernandez Diaz said.
The wreckage still remained near the site on Saturday, as passenger trains passed by. Black ribbons of mourning dotted the Santiago de Compostela and flags flew at half-staff. Makeshift shrines drew mourners to the city's cathedral.
Someone placed flowers on a bridge above the railroad tracks, with a note reading, "We are all in solidarity with the city of Santiago."
Garzon had been expected to give a preliminary statement to judicial police as early as Thursday, but that process was delayed, reportedly due to health reasons. Earlier Saturday, the justice department said Garzon's first appearance before a judge had been postponed until Sunday.
A blood-soaked Garzon was photographed after the Wednesday crash being escorted away from the wreckage, at first by civilians who had hurried to the scene of the accident and then by police, but it is not clear just what his medical status is.
Unconfirmed media reports said that Garzon had injured ribs.
The train's eight passenger carriages packed with 218 passengers blazed far over the speed limit into a curve and violently tipped over. Diesel fuel sent flames coursing through some cabins.
Investigators are examining recording devices from the train but have not officially said how fast it was going when it derailed.
An American passenger, Stephen Ward, said he was watching the train's speed on a display screen in the carriage ? and it indicated it was going 194 kph (121 mph), more than double the 80-kph speed limit.
The president of Adif, the Spanish rail agency, said that the driver should have started slowing the train 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) before the dangerous bend. He said signs clearly marked this point when the driver must begin to slow.
Normally, police take a first statement that is then examined by an investigating judge who must then take testimony within 72 hours of the arrest. That deadline is 7:40 p.m. Sunday.
Although that initial court hearing would be closed, it would give hints about the status of the investigation. The judge would decide whether to jail the driver as an official suspect, release him on bail, or release him without charges. If a judge finds sufficient evidence for a criminal trial, the suspect will be charged and a trial date set.
In an interview with The Associated Press after being released from the hospital, Ward was wearing bandages and a neck brace.
Santiago officials had been preparing for the religious feast of St. James of Compostela, Spain's patron saint, but canceled it after the crash. Ward said he has sorry that the event had been marred.
"It's horrible that so much death and tragedy occurred," he said.
___
Heckle contributed to this report from Madrid.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-07-27-Spain-Train%20Derailment/id-3e023bceb4754b529f7cde85b179d02c
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Public release date: 16-Jul-2013
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