The judge investigating the fatal collapse of a maritime walkway on El Bocal beach in Santander, in which six people died and one was seriously injured on March 3, is investigating three officials from the Cantabria Coastal Demarcation, dependent on the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, for six counts of homicide and one count of injury, all due to gross negligence. The three officials have been summoned to testify on May 15 in a session where expert evidence will be presented, both judicial and those requested by the private prosecution and the defenses.
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The investigating judge has decided to extend the criminal action to the former head of the Projects and Works Service of the Coastal Demarcation, from the installation of the infrastructure until May 2023, when he retired. The current head of the Projects and Works Service, who succeeded the third official under investigation, and the head of the Coastal Demarcation, who was the director of Works for the 2014 coastal path construction project, were already under investigation in the case.
In addition to the three officials, a 112 service operator is also under investigation for handling the call made by a neighbor reporting the poor condition of the walkway, and a Santander Local Police officer who received the alert derived from 112 and did not process it.
In a ruling released this Tuesday, the magistrate points out that the third official involved “held a guarantor position regarding the structural safety of the walkway” and had the “obligation to promote, order, or verify the necessary inspection and maintenance actions during that period.” The “absence of adequate inspections and maintenance” generated “a significant risk that materialized in the collapse of the walkway,” highlights the judge, citing the content of the expert report.
The investigating judge considers that each person responsible for the Works Department holds “a clear guarantor position and capacity to act,” due to the position they held and hold, and that “with their omission,” they could have contributed, “concausally,” to the “maintenance of the uncontrolled risk” that led to the collapse of the walkway.
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The lack of maintenance of the infrastructure, according to the ruling, could constitute “gross negligence” and the possible commission of the six counts of homicide and the serious injuries suffered by the survivor. The magistrate has also agreed that the young woman rescued alive by firefighters be examined to assess the injuries she sustained in a forensic report.
The judicial document highlights that the walkway was “open for public use without any type of restriction” and that it was not subjected “to any type of control or inspection and maintenance since its construction in 2014.” It also states that, “apparently,” a material “certainly inadequate” for this type of structure, exposed to an uncovered outdoor environment and located in a coastal setting, was used for the fittings of the support beams.
Collapse due to uncontrolled deterioration
“The total absence of inspections presumably prevented the detection of structural deterioration,” it emphasizes. The only maintenance actions were carried out “late and partially” and focused only on the wooden structure. “The collapse could have been a consequence of uncontrolled progressive deterioration,” it concludes.
The magistrate has given permission to the parties’ experts to access the scene of the accident to carry out an ocular inspection and take samples, and has set the deadline for submitting reports “three days before May 15,” the date of the appearance of the three Coastal officials under investigation. She has also rejected the request for the engineer who signed the walkway project to testify as an investigated party next Friday, instead of as an expert witness, something that the Santander City Council had requested.
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