URDA, Spain (AP) — One high-speed Spanish train slammed into another that had stopped on the tracks Wednesday, killing at least 68 people and shredding carriages in the country’s second deadly rail collision this year.
The regional government for Castilla La Mancha confirmed the death toll and said another 58 people needed medical treatment in hospital. It said 397 passengers were in the moving train and 147 passengers in the stopped train.
Rescue workers continued to search for survivors and bodies.
Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente said that the crash was caused by what he called the “inexplicable” order from a central command center for Spain’s trains after a security system had failed. He said the train engineers were not to blame.
The accident comes with memories still fresh of another crash between high-speed trains in southern Spain in January involving trains from the same two companies.
Spain’s rail system operator ADIF said the crash occurred in the province of Toledo, involving two high-speed trains heading in the same direction from the capital Madrid to Seville in southwestern Spain.
One train, run by the state-owned RENFE company, ran into the tail of the other train owned by private company IRYO that had stopped, knocking two of its cars off the track in a rural area between two villages.
Rail service was suspended between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia.
Until this year, there had been no fatal crash on Spain’s dedicated high-speed lines since the network opened in 1992.
Puente said that at 8:30 a.m. local time the security system on a stretch of 39 miles stopped working due to a computer malfunction, causing all trains on that stretch to stop. But the central command told the RENFE train to start running again without any speed restrictions, and it collided with the stopped IRYO train at 8:53 a.m.
Puente said that the train should never have been told to start moving again since there was still a “stop signal” active that line. And if it had, it should have been told to go at reduced speed.
Puente said they were working to determine how fast the train was going, but it could have been 124 mph for that stretch of the track.
“I am not attributing responsibility to anyone, I am just stating the facts,” Puente said.
The crash, which occurred in a flat stretch surrounded by olive fields in between the towns of Urda and Los Yébenes, left one car torn into bits of metal and other material, scattering debris down a gravel slope.
Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said that emergency workers were focusing on rescuing survivors and bodies from the two most damaged train cars. She said that the injured are being sent to hospitals in the area.
“It was a high-speed impact, so we are expecting this to be a tragedy,” García said.
Passenger Ignacio Relaño was traveling on the RENFE train. He told state broadcaster TVE that the train had stopped momentarily on the line before it started again and then crashed into the IRYO.
“We all felt the train abruptly slowing down and then the impact,” he said. “The car leaned to one side like it was about to tip over. I hit my nose, everything went flying, luggage, cellphones. Everything shook.”
Another passenger recounted to Cadena Ser radio how she felt the train slam on the brakes and was thrown forward in her seat, breaking the small table in front of her. She said she saw body parts and trapped people covered in blood.
IRYO, an Italian-owned company, said in a statement that it has “activated its security protocols and is closely working with authorities.”
The mayor of the nearby town of Urda, Manuel Galán, said civil protection authorities had asked his officials to prepare a sports pavilion to receive injured passengers.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez canceled his agenda to focus on the crash. He wrote on X that he was “dismayed by the serious train accident in Toledo.”
“Emergency services are working on site to attend to the affected passengers,” wrote Sánchez, who faces a national election next month. “All my thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Spain’s King Felipe VI visited the crash site. He and Queen Letizia said in a short statement on X that they were following news of the accident.
“We are deeply saddened and concerned by the train accident in Urda (Toledo),” the royal couple said. “We share in the grief of the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives, and we send our heartfelt support to the injured and all those affected.”
Spain’s soccer federation postponed all 24 Copa del Rey games scheduled on Wednesday.
The wreckage of Wednesday’s crash reminded many of the aftermath of another train collision in January, when 46 people died in southern Spain when a IRYO train jumped the track and hit an oncoming RENFE train. That sent the first two cars of the impacted train plummeting down a 13-foot slope.
That crash was the deadliest in Spain since a 2013 crash that killed 80 people.
The post At least 68 dead in central Spain after high-speed train crash appeared first on MS NOW.
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