Discovery Channel | Spains Worst Rail Disaster

At 8.42 pm on Wednesday July 24th, an inter-city train with 218 passengers on board derailed at high SPEED just four kilometres short of the station at Santiago de Compostella, Spain - a pilgrimage destination for Catholics all over the world. Seventy nine passengers were killed, and more than twenty are still in a critical condition.



Footage from a trackside security camera shows the train leaving the rails as it emerges from the tunnel into a tight bend. The eight carriages behind were propelled into a concrete embankment throwing them and their passengers twisting through the air. This unique documentary analyses this film and illustrates the movement though a detailed three-dimensional graphic, showing the extraordinary physics of the crash.



SPAIN'S WORST RAIL DISASTER presents a second-by-second analysis of Spain's worst train disaster, and delves into the important questions that surround the fatal incident: What caused the train to derail? Was there a catastrophic technological malfunction or driver error? Or was it a combination of the two? Was the train going too fast? And what did the driver do in the moments before the crash?



SPAIN'S WORST RAIL DISASTER also looks ahead to the future of train travel in the wake of this terrible event, featuring contributions from leading researchers and train engineers about the world's most advanced train safety technology. As Europe and other parts of the world move towards creating a high SPEED rail network across continents, the programme explores whether we are at risk of creating a network more susceptible to serious train disasters.