Spain's train crash toll reaches 69 as investigators trace a safety system failure and an order to keep moving

Rescuers worked through a second night in the wreckage near Urda, in Toledo province south of Madrid, and by Thursday the count of the dead had reached 69 as of October 29. The Interior Ministry said six more victims were added overnight and then revised its own higher figure of 74 back down to 69. Officials had received 67 reports from families still looking for relatives, and 52 bodies were still being identified.

The crash happened at about 8:54 on Wednesday morning on the Madrid to Seville line. An Iryo train carrying 147 passengers had stopped after a computer malfunction knocked out the LZB safety system, which monitors train speed and stops trains on its own when something goes wrong. The failure halted traffic along a stretch of about 63 kilometres, and control passed to the Adif control centre at Atocha station in Madrid. Recordings reported by elDiario show the Iryo driver telling the centre at 8:48 that he could not verify his safety system and was still stopped. The Renfe train behind him, carrying 397 passengers, had been told twelve minutes earlier to disconnect and reconnect the system and to resume normal speed. Six minutes after the Iryo driver's call, the Renfe train struck his train from behind at more than 120 miles per hour. Carriages derailed and at least three fell down an embankment.

Transport Minister Oscar Puente said a central control centre authorized the Renfe train to move although a stop signal was still active, in breach of protocol. He called the decision inexplicable and described the crash as a computer failure followed by human error. Emiliano Garcia Page, who leads the Castilla La Mancha region, said 110 injured people were first taken to hospitals, 60 have been discharged, and 50 remain hospitalized, including 15 in critical condition, as of October 29.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declared three days of national mourning starting Thursday and told reporters the government is taking steps to ensure this never happens again. Protesters clashed with police outside the Transport Ministry in Madrid on Wednesday night. This is Spain's second deadly high speed rail crash this year, after a derailment in January that killed at least 40 people, and the deadliest train crash in the country in thirteen years. Investigators have not issued a final account of the sequence, and both Renfe and Iryo say they are gathering information.