Company denies brake failure in Argentine train tragedy

The commuter train line operator in the Argentine capital where a crash last week killed 51 people rejected Sunday a conductors claims that brake failure was to blame.The train completed its route without there having been confirmed, or even reported, any irregularities, prior to the crash in the Once station, Trenes de Buenos Aires (TBA) said in a statement.The engineer operating the train blamed the brakes for failing, after he repeatedly warned they were faulty, a judicial source said Saturday.Engineer Marcos Cordoba is being investigated by police but was free after being treated at a hospital.He has told police he reported brake problems to his supervisors but that he was ordered to continue the trip that ended in the third worst rail accident in Argentine history.Another 703 people were injured when the train on Wednesday slammed into a bumper at Buenos Aires Terminal Once. The train carried about 2,000 people.The severity of the rail disaster for Argentina ranked behind only the 1970 train accident in Benavides that killed 236 people and the 1978 wreck in Santa Fe province that resulted in 55 deaths.