Spain second deadly rail crash this year kills at least 68 people near Urda

The Iryo train stood still on the Madrid to Seville high speed line near Urda on Wednesday morning, and the Renfe train behind it was traveling at full speed when it hit.

The collision came just before 9 a.m. and killed at least 68 people, 44 of them on the Iryo train and 24 on the Renfe train, with nearly 80 people injured, as of October 28. At least three carriages plunged down an embankment beside the elevated track, and rescuers were still searching the wreckage as darkness fell. Regional government head Emiliano Garcia Page said the toll had reached 68 and that more victims could be found once the carriages are moved. The line between Madrid and Andalusia was suspended. The crash is Spain deadliest rail disaster since 2013, and it is the second collision between high speed trains on the same line in nine months. A crash on the route in January killed 46 people.

Puente laid out the first official account of the cause on Wednesday. At about 8:30 a.m. the LZB safety system failed along a 63 kilometer stretch of track because of a computer malfunction, and about six trains stopped automatically. The control center at Atocha in Madrid took manual command of the traffic. At 8:36 a.m. the center authorized the Renfe train to resume normal running even though a red signal stayed active on the line and the Iryo train stood ahead of it. The Renfe train covered about 25 kilometers before the impact at about 8:53 a.m. Puente said the train should instead have run under the marcha a la vista procedure, at a speed low enough for the driver to stop at any obstacle, and he called the order inexplicable. “There was a red signal prohibiting movement, yet the train was authorized to proceed,” he said. He stressed that the drivers were not to blame. The trade union CSIF called on Puente to resign.

Urda heard the crash before any official did. Antonio Garcia, the town pharmacist, is 78. His daughter told him what had happened and he drove to the line with first aid materials, painkillers and blankets from his pharmacy. One carriage was wedged inside another. A passenger who had lost an arm was calmly asking for an ambulance, Garcia said, and another man was saying his final goodbyes to his family. “His last words were ‘God is good’. For those of us who are believers, these are very beautiful words,” Garcia said. Other residents brought water to passengers who got off the trains. The town sports hall became a center for survivors, and the primary school was set aside for relatives, where a volunteer psychologist from Madrid named Carmen spent the day with families. “There were many mothers who found out their children had been killed. That was the worst of today. Telling a mother that her child has died in a train crash is devastating,” she said.

Sanchez traveled to the scene and declared three days of official mourning, from October 29 to 31. “All of Spain is in mourning,” he said, and he promised that the investigation would be thorough. “If there has been negligence, it will come to light. And if there have been failures in the safety system, they will be addressed with the utmost firmness,” he said. He added that the causes of the January crash and this crash appear unrelated, and that Spain will strengthen safety further if the inquiry says it must. The opposition People Party canceled its campaign events for the day. The Spanish football federation postponed Copa del Rey matches scheduled for Wednesday night.