Pope Benedict XVI to honor Spanish subway crash victims

Pope Benedict XVI is to honor the victims of a subway crash that left 41 people dead when he visits this Mediterranean port city over the weekend, officials said Wednesday.

Photo: Pope Benedict XVI to honor Spanish subway crash victims

Pope Benedict XVI to honor Spanish subway crash victims

The pope's motorcade is to stop at Jesus station, where a train derailed Monday, said Rocio Casanova, spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Church's World Meeting of the Families, a nine-day event that the pope is to lead beginning Saturday.

Train services resumed Wednesday morning on the affected subway line, after the two carriages involved in Monday's accident were removed from the tracks, said Valencia subway spokesman Juan Carlos Murillo.

"Many people still do not know the line is back running so it's not that busy. But little by little we'll get back to normal," he said.

Valencia health spokesman Rafael Blasco told reporters that the autopsy carried out on the train driver who also died in the crash had revealed nothing abnormal.

On Tuesday, Valencia regional transport minister Jose Ramon Garcia Anton said investigations showed the train that derailed had been traveling at 80 kph (50 mph), twice than the normal speed of 40 kph (25 mph), at the curved section where it left the tracks.

Officials suspected the driver either fainted or became otherwise unable to control the train before the accident.

The accident turned Valencia from a city preparing for a festive visit by Benedict to one mourning its dead.

Blasco added that two of the 10 people still in hospital following the accident were in critical condition, while another two were "very serious."

Hundreds of thousands of people were traveling to this Mediterranean city for the meeting, but organizers called off all festive celebrations that had been planned for the pope's visit. The city has been festooned with posters advertising the visit, and flags with the yellow and white colors of the Vatican hung from many balconies.

A funeral service at the city's cathedral Tuesday was attended by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and his wife and other national and regional dignitaries.

Garcia Anton said neither the train nor tracks had sustained mechanical failure before the derailment in Spain's third-largest city, denying initial reports that a wheel on the train had broken.

On Tuesday, Valencia and other Spanish cities observed five minutes of silence in honor of the dead and injured.

Five of the dead were foreign nationals from Argentina, Bulgaria, Colombia, Paraguay and Venezuela. One victim remained unidentified, reports AP.