It will pay 20 million euros to the victims of last week’s high-speed crash that killed 45 people and injured more than 150, Transport Minister Oscar Puente said today.
The country is still trying to recover from the Jan. 18 disaster in Adamuth near the southern city of Córdoba that led to one of the highest death tolls from a rail accident in recent European history and the highest in Spain since 2013.
Hundreds of thousands of euros in compensation for each family
The families of the people killed will receive 216,000 each within a maximum of three months — 72,000 euros in tax relief from the government and 72,000 euros in advance insurance compensation. Another 72,000 will be paid by the passengers’ compulsory travel insurance.
“We know that normal procedures and legal timelines do not always meet the vital urgency of a tragedy like this,” Puente said, adding that victims cannot afford to wait years to receive support.
Payments to the injured will range from 2,400 to 84,000 euros, according to Puente.
Pressure on the Minister of Transport to resign
The minister is under public pressure after the accident in Adamuth and other incidents in the same week, including the death of a train driver in Catalonia and two other non-fatal accidents. The main opposition People’s Party called for his resignation.
In response to a question about his future, Puente told reporters that he has a clear conscience, is doing his job as best he can and is making every effort to communicate all available information to citizens.
Catalonia’s rail service Rodalies also faced problems last week when many drivers refused to work over safety concerns, causing thousands of passengers to miss their journeys, while a software fault caused its main train traffic control center to collapse on Monday.
