Despite
sins of omission and commission, the conductor of the Santiago train
won't be 'imputed' the way the driver has been. The investigating
judge ruled yesterday that he won't hold the conductor criminally
responsible for the crash, notwithstanding his call to the driver 2
minutes before the accident happened. The driver, therefore, is being
held solely responsible.
By
the way, in the Spanish criminal system someone suspected of a crime proceeds from being imputado to procesado
and then arestado, assuming the investigating judge finds
sufficient evidence to justify arrest and trial. I
believe the train driver is still an imputado. As such he has
certain rights, including:-
- The right to stay silent.
- The right to have a lawyer
- The right to be presumed innocent.
- The right not to incriminate him/herself.
- The right not to confess guilt.
- The right to lie.
The
conductor who made the call which distracted the driver is not an
imputado but an atestado, or witness. Even though, in this
capacity, he lied to the judge earlier this week, it doesn't look as
if any action will be taken against him for this, perhaps
because he was not on oath. Again, expert clarification would be
welcome. My understanding is that an atestado does not have
the same right to lie as an imputado.
One
of the positive aspects of the horrendous crash - perhaps the only
one - was the speed with which those living close to it rushed to help the trapped passengers who'd survived, climbing down onto the
rails and breaking windows to get them out. I couldn't help wondering
whether in the UK they'd have been stopped from doing this by the
need for Health & Safety to make a risk assessment. Before
deciding that only the official rescue services could be involved.
Moving
away from this subject . . . We all by now know of the airport at
Castellón built at vast expense but which has never seen a plane or
a passenger. Indeed, if you watched Top Gear a couple of weeks
ago, you'll even have seen it. Unsurprisingly, it has no income. On
the other hand it does have expenditure and for this year the budget
for this was a mere 17.1m euros. If anyone has any idea where this
money goes, I'm sure many of us would appreciate being told.
Finally
. . . I last mentioned The Economist a month ago, when I
reported that 3 issues had arrived at the same time, all of them
late. Not to be outdone by July, the 1st of August brought 4 issues,
all in the same mail and all of them late. You'd have thought a
modern developed state would be able to maintain a decent postal
service during the summer months but this is clearly beyond the
Correos.
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