Canada’s Bombardier joins probe into Spain train crash

Canadian manufacturer Bombardier has joined the investigation of the deadly train derailment in Spain that involved one of its locomotives.

Marc Laforge, spokesman for the company’s rail division, told AFP it has “dispatched people to the site to help in any way possible, and of course to collaborate with the investigation.”

Bombardier was part of a consortium led by Spain’s Patentes Talgo which won a contract in 2004 to supply Spain’s national rail network Renfe with 44 high speed trains for 188 million euros.

Bombardier supplied the locomotives capable of reaching speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour (150 mph) while Talgo supplied the chassis, brakes and other components.

“Of course, the locomotives were equipped with systems” that regulate speed, Laforge noted, as a preliminary enquiry pointed to speed as the cause of the crash.

Spanish authorities have confirmed that 80 people were killed and 178 injured in Wednesday’s accident, in which a high speed passenger express train jumped its rails and was torn in half.