Spain was to hold a memorial service on Monday for the 79 people who died in the country's worst rail disaster in decades, hours after the driver of the train was freed pending trial on charges of reckless homicide.
At 2041 local time on Wednesday the eight-carriage, high-speed train crumpled and caught fire after slamming into a concrete wall. The impact was so strong that one of the carriages was thrown several metres over an embankment.
The train driver, Francisco Garzon, 52, appeared to take the train too fast through a tight curve. He had been under arrest since Thursday. Examining Magistrate Luis Alaez formally charged Garzon with "79 counts of homicide and numerous offences of bodily harm, all of them committed through professional recklessness," the court said in a statement on Sunday night.
In a closed-door hearing, Garzon admitted taking the curve too fast, blaming it on a momentary lapse, according to media reports. Among conditions of his release, Garzon was ordered to surrender his passport and check in regularly with the court.
