With a high-profile trial aiming at his alleged responsibility in the Once train crash, ex Transport secretary Ricardo Jaime considered he is «not to blame» for the 2012 tragedy that claimed the lives of 51 people and left dozens injured.
“No, absolutely not,” the ex Kirchnerite official responded when a reporter at a radio show asked him if he felt any guilt or «attack of conscience» over the railway accident that took place on February 22 two years ago.
“An official who left the (Transport) office in 2009 can not be blamed for an accident when it has been made clear that the train could brake. They can not make me responsible for the crash,” Jaime affirmed this morning and added that “a lot of investments” were made in the railway system while he was in office.
“During my administration, there was not a single accident in which a person resulted dead and in my statement I explained the evolution of the Sarmiento service. There were lots of investments.”
The ex Transport secretary during the Néstor Kirchner administration and Cristina Fernández’s first term in office (2007-2009) is currently facing trial over criminal derailment and fraudulent administration, accused of failing to control the concessionary company operating the Sarmiento train service at the time of the accident.
Jaime’s successor, Juan Pablo Schiavi, is also being trialed over the 2012 crash as well as other 28 defendants, including former public employees, private-sector entrepreneurs and Marcos Córdoba, the driver manipulating the train that collided against another one that remained strained at the Buenos Aires City Once station two years ago.
buenosairesherald.com