Questions are being asked over an alleged control-room error after a train crash near Toledo killed 68 people and injured more than 100 others. Spain’s Transport Minister Oscar Puente said an “inexplicable” decision to restart services after a security-system failure may have led to the collision.
Three carriages were derailed when a Renfe train travelling from Madrid to Seville struck a stationary Iryo train on the same route shortly before 9am on Wednesday.
All trains on a 63km stretch had been stopped following a computer malfunction. However, the central command unit instructed the Renfe service to resume without imposing any speed restriction, according to Mr Puente.
The crash occurred just over 20 minutes later, at 8.53am, around 100 miles south of Madrid. The Renfe locomotive was reportedly capable of reaching speeds of up to 185mph.
Mr Puente said the control centre “had more than enough time to verify the error, and they did not fix it”. He added: “The decision to resume traffic, while that system had not been restored, belongs to the control centre.”
Survivors describe train crash near Toledo
Passengers described scenes of devastation inside the wrecked carriages, with one carriage catching fire and smoke continuing to pour from the twisted metal as emergency crews arrived.
Sebastian Herrero, 46, who was travelling on the Iryo train, said he was thrown against the seats and was “in the air for about four or five seconds”, which he said felt like “a lifetime”.
He said three carriages at the rear of the Iryo train had been destroyed, adding: “It’s a twisted mass of metal. It’s as if they had planted a bomb.”
Another survivor, named Jesus, said he saw “a boy with an amputated arm walking away from the wreckage”. Architect Joaquín Torres said a badly injured woman had died in his arms after telling him she was cold.
People living and working nearby also went to help. Construction worker David Gomez said he and two others used first-aid kits after cutting through fences to reach passengers trying to escape through the windows.
“As I was trying to pull a young woman out, there was a piece of a leg,” he said.
Photographs from the scene showed carriages ripped apart, including one pierced by a long steel rail that had been driven through the floor and out through the roof.
Fatima Banez, a former Spanish employment minister, was among those who died, it emerged last night.
Calls for answers over Spanish rail safety
The disaster came less than a year after 46 people were killed when a train left the track and hit another in southern Spain, prompting concerns about the safety of the country’s railways.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the situation was “not acceptable” and announced three days of national mourning beginning today. Speaking at the crash site, he said: “The whole of Spain is grieving.”
Mr Sanchez said authorities would establish what had caused the accident and act if wrongdoing was found. “If there has been negligence, it will be known,” he said.
Opposition leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo suspended campaigning and said: “Spain has the right to know what is going on with its infrastructure.”
The collision also came a day before a 24-hour stoppage by Spain’s biggest train drivers’ union. Earlier this month, the union said it wanted “real and definitive technical solutions” to safety and reliability problems affecting the country’s rolling stock.
