title: Managing the identification of the mortal victims run over by a train in the Castelldefels railway accident (Barcelona).
abstract: The identification of disaster victims is the formal, organized process of identifying multiple bodies after an incident with multiple victims. The appropriate management of these incidents, particularly of the bodies, is one of the most crucial aspects of disaster response and its importance has led to the evolution of the concept of Disaster Victim Management. The aim of this study is to report how the process of identifying the 12 mortal victims of a railway accident in June 2010 in Castelldefels (Barcelona) was managed. The methodology used complied with the National Protocol for medical forensic and scientific police response to mass casualty incidents. The family assistance center also served as an ante mortem (AM) office. Despite the fragmentation of the bodies, all the victims were identified satisfactorily. The main problems observed during the management of the disaster were due to the state of the bodies, which raised many doubts as to the number of fatalities. The experience prompted a proposal to establish some recommendations on limiting the number of fragments to be analyzed genetically. We would like to stress the importance of setting up a Data Integration Center which brought together all the participating institutions, and collected and supervised all the different identification reports in a single comprehensive text addressed to the competent legal authority.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Medicina Legal de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain; Departament de Ciències Médiques Bàsiques, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Reus, Spain. Electronic address: eneko.barberia@xij.gencat.cat.
authors.forename: Eneko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Barbería
authors.affiliation: Institut de Medicina Legal de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Carles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martin-Fumadó
authors.affiliation: Institut de Medicina Legal de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallés, Spain.
authors.forename: Ignasi
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Galtés
authors.affiliation: Institut de Medicina Legal de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Mercé
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Subirana-Domenech
authors.affiliation: División de Policía Científica de la Comisaría General de Investigación Criminal de Mossos d'Esquadra, Sabadell, Spain.
authors.forename: Lourdes
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Puigbarraca-Sol
authors.affiliation: Institut de Medicina Legal de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Claudina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vidal-Gutiérrez
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Barcelona, Instituto Nacional de Toxicología y Ciencias Forenses, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Valverde-Villarreal
authors.affiliation: Institut de Medicina Legal de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Castellà-García
authors.affiliation: Institut de Medicina Legal de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Medallo-Muñiz
mesh_terms: D000059:Accidents; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D064891:Disaster Victims; D005260:Female; D018732:Forensic Anthropology / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D054527:Mass Casualty Incidents; D011890:Railroads; D013030:Spain; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Disaster Victim Management; Disaster victim identification; Forensic Pathology; Human identification