Train driver, safety official convicted over Spain's worst train crash in decades

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish train driver and a former traffic safety chief at national rail infrastructure operator ADIF were sentenced on Friday to two-and-a-half years in prison over a train disaster that killed 79 people 11 years ago.

In Spain's worst rail accident in decades, an eight-carriage, high-speed Alvia 04155 train veered off the track on a sharp bend near the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela, slammed into a concrete wall and burst into flames. Another 143 people were injured in the 2013 crash.

Presiding judge Elena Fernandez Curras said two elements caused the derailment: the driver got distracted when receiving a call, and there was no safety system in place in case the driver did not respect the speed limit.

The defendants and the insurance companies of ADIF and Renfe were sentenced to pay 25 million euros ($27.14 million) in damages to the victims in the civil part of the trial.

After the crash, ADIF identified more than 300 spots on the Spanish railway network where speed changes were needed.

The judicial investigation into the crash was complex and took years, and the trial ran for 10 months. Only two of more than 20 people investigated were eventually put on trial.

Fernandez revised down the official death toll to 79 from 80 as she considered one of the passengers, who passed away weeks after the crash, died as a result of a serious illness he was suffering from, and not the injuries. His relatives will still be compensated as he was injured in the crash.

($1 = 0.9213 euros)

(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, editing by Inti Landauro and Mark Heinrich)