The train was travelling more than twice the speed limit when it derailed on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela, killing dozens of people.

“The two defendants breached the duty of care imposed on them by their duties,” the court said in a statement.

Prosecutors had sought four-year prison sentences for the driver, Francisco Garzón, and Andrés Cortabitarte, former safety director at state rail operator ADIF.

A probe of the July 24th 2013 derailment showed the train was travelling at 179 kilometres (111 miles) per hour, twice the speed limit for that stretch of track.

The train ploughed into a concrete siding, killing 80 people and injuring over 140 others injured in Spain’s deadliest train tragedy since 1944.

Investigators said the tragedy resulted from a lapse in attention by the driver, who ended a phone call with the on-board conductor just moments before the train lurched off the rails.

When he took the stand, Garzón acknowledged he was distracted by the phone call but said the track should have had signals warning him to reduce speed before the curve.

He tearfully apologised to the relatives of the victims.

Garzón had already apologised to relatives of the victims in a letter published on the one-year anniversary of the accident, saying he felt “a lot of grief and pain”.

Cortabitarte, as the former safety director at ADIF, was accused of not having carried out a study of the risks of the bend where the accident happened.

In its 530-page judgement, the court found the driver and the former ADIF official were directly responsible for the deaths of 79 of the 80 people who died following the accident.

The 80th victim, who was injured in the accident and died 73 days later following a serious illness, was not considered by the court to have been directly caused by the accident and was instead counted among the injured.

The accident happened on the eve of the festival of St James, one of Jesus’s disciples, whose remains are said to rest in a Santiago shrine that draws huge numbers of pilgrims every year.

Thousands of people were in the city for the annual event, which was called off when officials declared a week of mourning.