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SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain — The train driver did little to hide his taste for speed. He posted a photograph of a locomotive speedometer needle stuck at 200 kilometers per hour, or about 125 miles m.p.h., on Facebook last year, boasting that the reading “has not been tampered with” and openly relishing the idea of racing past the authorities.
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain — A veteran train conductor with a zest for speed was arrested in his hospital room in northwest Spain where investigators are trying to determine whether reckless behavior caused a train wreck that left dozens of passengers dead, the authorities said on Friday.
“Imagine what a rush it would be traveling alongside the Civil Guard, and passing them so that their speed traps go off,” he wrote, in all capitals. “Hehe, that would be quite a fine for Renfe, hehe,” referring to his employer, the Spanish rail company.
The conductor, Francisco José Garzón Amo, 52, is the focus of a criminal investigation, according to Jaime Iglesias, the national police commander from Galicia who said at a news conference that investigators were waiting for his condition to improve to start questioning him about Wednesday's crash. A judicial inquiry, he added, could also take place in the hospital where he is recovering.
The train driver, Francisco José Garzón Amo, a veteran with more than three decades of experience, was arrested on Friday, and investigators were examining records from the train’s “black box,” or data recorder, to determine how it smashed into a curved wall and careered off the track on Wednesday, killing 78 people and leaving dozens injured.
Photographs of the conductor, his face bloodied, appeared prominently in Spanish newspapers along with screen grabs of the driver’s now deleted Facebook page where he bragged last year about topping speeds of 200 kilometers, or 124 miles, per hour.
On Friday, Jaime Iglesias, a national police force commander in Galicia, said the authorities had the black box data from the train, which was traveling between Madrid and Ferrol, in northwestern Spain, and crashed outside Santiago de Compostela. But he could not say how long it would take to determine the cause of the crash, one of Europe’s worst recent rail disasters, or to verify reports that the train was traveling at twice the speed limit.
But Julio Gómez-Pomar, the president of Renfe, Spain’s rail network, on Friday described the conductor as a seasoned employee who had passed through the curved wall where the crash took place some 60 times without incident and had exhaustive knowledge of the line.
Mr. Iglesias said the death toll had been revised down to 78 from 80 after the identification of bodies. Those killed include an American, an Algerian and a Mexican, he said.
The black boxes, recovered from the wreckage of the train, the Alvia 151, could help explain why it roared off the track on a bend as it was approaching Santiago de Compostela at twice the speed limit.
The American was identified as Ana Maria Cordoba by the Catholic Diocese in Arlington, Va., which said she worked there. The Catholic News Service said the Cordobas’ son, Santiago, had just completed a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, and that Mrs. Cordoba, her husband and daughter were en route to meet him.The husband and daughter are reportedly in stable condition.
The death toll from the train wreck, revised lower with new identifications of bodies, now stands at 78, with most of the victims from Spain, along with some passengers from Algeria, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and the United States.
As seen in a chilling video from a security camera, the passenger train rounded a curve at high speed on Wednesday night, tumbling violently off the track, slamming against a curved wall and piling up in a twisted wreck.
In silence and tears, relatives of victims gathered by the broken track and the gray concrete bend marked with scallop shells, the symbols of the ancient way of the apostle St. James. The shell is a badge of honor for pilgrims who complete the journey along the ancient camino de Santiago de Compostela.
On Thursday, Spanish news media reported that the driver had said the train’s speed had been about 120 miles per hour, more than double the limit in the stretch of track where the train derailed. On the day of the wreck, he took over from another driver just 60 miles before the crash, according to Spanish news reports.
Ana Maria Cordoba, an administrative employee with the Arlington Diocese in Virginia, was riding the train with her husband and daughter to visit her son, who had just completed the camino. Her husband and daughter survived, but Mrs. Cordoba did not. Victor de Sola and his wife Maria, both 92, were also among the victims. They visited Santiago de Compostela every year for the feast day of St. James on July 25.
The train was almost full, carrying more than 200 passengers and merrymakers returning to the region for a special holiday on Thursday. July 25 is the feast day for St. James the Apostle, the patron saint of Spain, who for centuries has inspired pilgrims to walk El Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James. The pilgrimage has had a burst of popularity in recent years, drawing walkers from around the world.
“My brother died doing what he loved the most, and that is something that gives me some relief,’’ said Tomás de Sola. The couple were buried Thursday.
After the crash, the city of Santiago de Compostela canceled its extensive celebration and the authorities urged people to donate blood. Thousands made a very different kind of pilgrimage to the site of the disaster, watching as rescuers used cranes and trucks to hoist the engines of the wrecked train. All — children, teenagers and older people — stood in funereal silence.
By early Friday, at least six bodies had not yet been identified. The Red Cross organized an information center for families at the Cersia Building in Santiago. Some relatives fumed openly about the wait for answers and permission to take the remains of victims.
Nearby, in a building where an information center had been set up, police officers kept the victims’ families from the public eye. Some walked around the building in tears, hugging and comforting one another, while others grew frustrated waiting to see their loved ones.
“My brother is there in a coffin and I want to take him home," said a young woman with a red blanket around her shoulders who would give her name only as Deborah. "But the organization is telling us that we have to talk to a psychologist and we are very frustrated.”
“Now, at 9:30 p.m., is when they allowed us to go and see our family member,” said María, a relative of a victim who did not want her full name used. “Twenty-four hours waiting, in these conditions. That’s too much.”
Genma Rodrigues, her eyes red, stood near the exit of the Cersia building. She was still waiting for news about two friends, Eva Pérez, 24, and Celtia Cabido, 22, who did not arrive for a huge reunion of friends from around Europe. "It’s too terrible," Ms. Rodrigues said. "I can’t bear it right now.”
Most high-speed lines that are part of the European rail traffic system are covered by a GPS-based surveillance network that constantly monitors trains’ speed and automatically brakes them at speed limits.
Another missing passenger was Rosalina Ynoa, a native of the Dominican Republic and a mother of four sons who was visiting Santiago for work.
Slower trains and trains crossing urban areas in Spain and other countries use a less intrusive system that warns the driver with sound and lights at excessive speeds, but does not automatically brake the train, said María Carmen Palao, a spokeswoman for Spain’s ADIF rail infrastructure company.
“She was a public servant in the Dominican government and traveled to Galicia to organize an official meeting in a few months," said Frank Bencosme, the Dominican consul. "She had a sister in Coruña and planned to visit her. But she didn’t make it.”
The accident, she said, took place two to three miles outside the station at Santiago de Compostela, in the “transition zone” between the two systems. The wreck occurred on the Galicia line, run by the rail operator Renfe and opened in 2011.
The city of Santiago is in mourning, with a concert stage at Plaza Quintana draped in black.
The Spanish newspaper El País reported that people at the train company said alcohol had not been found in Mr. Garzón’s system, but the security video showing the train barreling into the turn and abruptly careening off the rails quickly raised concerns that he was traveling too fast.
As the Alvia trains returned to Santiago station, some of the passengers said they tried to quell their fears.
Even in his Facebook message, posted in 2012 but removed late Thursday morning, Mr. Garzón elicited some astounded comments from friends.
“My little granddaughter did not want to get on the train," said Ana Cristina Jiménez, 73, a Santiago resident arriving from Madrid who said she calmed the child with a pill. "The train was driving so slowly that we knew they were doing it on purpose.”
“Dude, you’re going full speed, braaaaake,” one commenter wrote.
“Christ, you’re doing 200km/h,” another said.
Outpourings of sympathy for Wednesday’s disaster came from all corners, including the White House. “On behalf of the American people, we offer our deepest sympathies and condolences,” President Obama said in a statement. The State Department confirmed Thursday that one American died and five were injured in the accident.
In a letter to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said he was “deeply saddened” by the accident. “Such a serious accident, with so many people dead and injured, is a tragedy for Spain and provokes such deep emotions,” he said.
Mr. Rajoy, who was born in the region, visited the scene and declared three days of official mourning. King Juan Carlos and his wife, Sofía, also rushed to Santiago de Compostela.
“In the face of a tragedy such as just happened in Santiago de Compostela on the eve of its big day, I can only express my deepest sympathy as a Spaniard and a Galician,” Mr. Rajoy said in a written statement.
The eight-car train, which left Madrid at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, was traveling to the coast when it derailed around 8:44 p.m., according to the clock on the security video. Witnesses described the destruction as the dead were taken to a temporary morgue. “The road is full of cadavers,” a radio reporter, Xaime López, said on the station Cadena Ser. “It’s striking: you almost can’t even count them.”
The accident was Spain’s worst train crash since 1972, when 86 people were killed in the southwest of the country.
Silvia Taulés reported from Santiago de Compostela, and Doreen Carvajal from Paris. Stephen Castle contributed reporting from London, and Caroline Brothers from Paris.
Silvia Taulés reported from Santiago de Compostela, and Doreen Carvajal from Paris. Stephen Castle contributed reporting from London, and Caroline Brothers from Paris.
