Attorney General: Excessive speed caused fatal Interoceanic Train crash

Excessive velocity was the origin of the Interoceanic Train clang that claimed 14 lives successful confederate Mexico successful precocious 2025, Attorney General Ernestina Godoy said Tuesday.

In a video message, Godoy said that erstwhile the bid crashed, it was traveling astatine 65 kilometers per hr (km/h) connected a curve wherever the maximum “authorized speed” is 50 km/h.

She said that the velocity the bid was traveling erstwhile it derailed successful the authorities of Oaxaca connected Dec. 28 was determined via accusation obtained from the achromatic box, which was located successful 1 of the train’s 2 locomotives.

In summation to the 14 fatalities, astir 100 radical were injured successful the crash, which occurred adjacent the tiny Oaxaca municipality of Nizanda.

The operator of the bid was arrested successful Palenque, Chiapas, connected Monday. He faces charges of culpable homicide and causing injuries owed to his allegedly negligent driving.

Godoy said that the bid was inspected aft the mishap and nary defects that could person placed its cognition astatine hazard were found.

On stretches of railroad that the bid passed earlier the mishap occurred, it “reduced its speed, which allowed america to cognize that the braking strategy was moving properly,” she said.

Godoy besides said that nary harm was recovered connected the tracks.

She noted that a scope of experts crossed fields, including topography, mechanical and electrical engineering, telecommunications and “industrial safety” contributed to the probe carried retired by the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR).

The lawyer wide said that investigations volition proceed to find whether immoderate different factors contributed to the accident, but arsenic things stand, excessive velocity has been established arsenic the sole cause.

The bid traveled astatine excessive velocity during a play of much than 1 hr earlier the mishap occurred 

The Interoceanic Train was traveling crossed the Isthmus of Tehuantepec from Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, to Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, erstwhile the mishap occurred.

Citing accusation obtained from the achromatic box, Godoy said that the train, anterior to the derailment, reached speeds of 111 km/h connected consecutive stretches of railroad, 41 km/h supra the “authorized limit.”

She said that the bid rounded the six curves earlier the mishap determination astatine a velocity of 52 km/h, somewhat supra the authorized limit.

Godoy stressed that “speeding connected a bid is overmuch much unsafe than successful a accepted vehicle” owed to a train’s value and wide arsenic good arsenic the radius of the curves it passes through. Consequently, she said, the “centrifugal unit increases — that is the unit that pushes the conveyance distant from its halfway of rotation, which causes it to permission the tracks and overturn.”

The bid that crashed connected Dec. 28 — made up of 2 locomotives and 4 rider cars — weighed astir 400 tonnes and was transporting astir 250 people.

The bid rounded the six curves supra the velocity bounds earlier derailing adjacent Nizanda, Oaxaca. (Especial/Cuartoscuro)

Citing the probe carried retired by the FGR, the paper Reforma reported that the bid traveled astatine excessive velocity during a play of implicit an hour, but the operator wasn’t warned astir his speeding oregon “stopped.”

“… Godoy didn’t accidental why, connected the way [the train] covered earlier the mishap — wherever determination were 2 stops astatine stations — nary alert oregon automated strategy was activated to marque [the driver] trim his speed,” Reforma wrote.

Carlos Barreda, a railroad expert, told Reforma that the trains that tally connected the interoceanic way person velocity alert systems and velocity power mechanisms. However, helium questioned whether they were working.

The erstwhile national authorities modernized the railroad crossed the Isthmus of Tehuantepec arsenic portion of an ambitious commercialized corridor project. Former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador inaugurated the enactment successful precocious 2023.

“Authorities, kings, politicians and rulers person been dreaming” astir connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico for “centuries,” helium said astatine the time.

Cargo unloaded astatine the ports successful Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos tin beryllium transported crossed the isthmus by freight trains earlier being reloaded onto a vessel to implicit its travel to its last destination.

“It’s an exceptional task — it provides an alternate to the Panama Canal,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said successful March 2025, referring to the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, which includes the modernized railroad betwixt Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos.

With reports from Reforma, El Financiero, El Universal, López-Dóriga Digital and Milenio