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The driver of a train that derailed in northwestern Spain last week, killing 79 people, was on a phone call with railway staff when the train crashed, the superior tribunal of Galicia announced Tuesday, citing information from data recorders.

The train was going 153 kph (95 mph) when it derailed, the tribunal said.

The express train derailed as it hurtled around a curve in northwestern Spain on Wednesday.

The state railway, Renfe, said the train crashed on a curve several kilometers from the train station in the city of Santiago de Compostela, a popular tourist destination.

The train was nearing the end of a six-hour trip from Madrid to the town of Ferrol in northwest Spain when it derailed at 8:41 p.m. Wednesday, the railway said.

The driver, Francisco Jose Garzon, was charged Sunday with 79 counts of homicide by professional recklessness and an undetermined number of counts of causing injury by professional recklessness.

A court granted Garzon conditional release, but his license to operate a train has been suspended for six months. He also surrendered his passport and must report to court weekly.

2 Americans among victims

The dead include at least 63 from Spain, said Maria Pardo Rios, spokeswoman for the Galicia regional supreme court. Some of the other victims came from the United States, Latin America and Europe.

Myrta Fariza was one of the two Americans killed. She and her husband were on their way to a Catholic festival; He was injured and later released from the hospital.

"Myrta was our loving wife, mother, sister, mother-in-law, aunt and friend, and words cannot express our sense of loss," her family said in a statement. "To all who knew her, Myrta provided irreplaceable love, compassion, courage, friendship and support. We will miss her dearly."

The other American was Ana-Maria Cordoba of Arlington, Va.

'It felt like a roller coaster'

Elder Stephen Ward of Utah was headed to the coastal Spanish town, ready to start a two-year Mormon religious mission.

The last thing he remembers from the train was flying sideways out of his seat.

"We had been going around some pretty sharp turns. We finally came to one more sharp turn, and the train, like, completely lifted up," he said. "It was leaning sideways. It felt like a roller coaster."

Ward, 18, blacked out when his car slammed on to its side, regaining consciousness only as he was being helped out of the train.

"I've got staples all over my scalp, I was covered in blood," he said. "They've scrubbed most of it off me now, but everyone was just covered in their own blood and occasionally the blood of others. It was gruesome to say the least."

Ward was discharged from the hospital Thursday, wearing a neck brace because of a cracked vertebra he suffered in the crash. Lacerations on his face are stapled shut, and there's a huge bruise on his leg.

Once he recovers, he plans to return to his missionary service.

Source: CNN