High-speed train crash in Spain leaves at least 68 dead, dozens injured, authorities say

A high-speed train slammed into the back of another train that had stopped in central Spain, derailing two carriages and killing at least 68 people on Wednesday morning, according to local authorities.

The regional government of Castilla La Mancha confirmed the death toll and said another 58 people were receiving medical treatment in hospitals. Rescuers continue to search the wreckage for survivors and bodies.

The accident occurred Wednesday morning in the province of Toledo, according to Spanish rail operator ADIF. Train service has been suspended between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia.

Padilla told public broadcaster TVE that the accident occurred between two high-speed trains heading in the same direction from Madrid to Seville and that one ran into the tail of the other while stopped, knocking two of its carriages off the track.

The accident involved a train of the Spanish public company RENFE and the private railway company IRYO. Trains from these two companies were also involved in a fatal accident in January. Padilla said there were 397 passengers on the RENFE train and 147 passengers on the IRYO train.

“Today all of Spain is in mourning,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said from the scene of the accident, where he announced that his government would decree three days of national mourning.

Sánchez called for increased safety measures to restore confidence in a high-speed rail system that was once a source of national pride.

“It is unacceptable that a country like Spain suffers two high-speed train accidents in the same year,” said Sánchez, who faces national elections on November 29.

Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente said the accident was caused by what he called an “inexplicable” order from a central control center for Spain’s trains after a safety system failed. He said the train’s engineers were not to blame.

Puente said that at 8:30 a.m., the safety system on a 63-kilometer (39-mile) stretch stopped working due to a computer malfunction, causing all trains on that stretch to stop. But central command asked the RENFE train to start running again without any speed restrictions, and it ended up colliding with the stopped IRYO train at 8:53 a.m.

Puente said the train should never have been ordered to start moving again since there was still an active “stop signal” on that line. And if that was the case, he should have at least been told to drive at a reduced speed.

Authorities were still studying the information to see how fast the train was traveling, but it could have been 200 km/h (124 mph) on that stretch of track, Puente said.

“I’m not attributing responsibility to anyone, I’m just stating the facts,” Puente said.

The accident, which occurred on a flat stretch surrounded by olive fields between the towns of Urda and Los Yébenes, left train cars shredded into pieces of metal and other materials, scattering debris down a gravel slope.

Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said rescuers were focused on rescuing survivors and bodies from the most damaged train cars.

“The impact happened at high speed, so we expect it to be a tragedy,” García said.

One passenger said: “We were all thrown into the air. » He said he was “reasonably well”, but that his friend was in much worse condition.

Passenger Ignacio Relaño was traveling on the RENFE train. He told state broadcaster TVE that the train stopped momentarily on the line before moving off again and then crashing into the IRYO.

“We all felt the train suddenly slow down and then the impact,” he said. “The car leaned to the side as if it was going to tip over. I hit my nose, everything flew away, the luggage, the cell phones. Everything shook.”

Another passenger told Cadena Ser radio how she felt the train suddenly brake and was thrown forward in her seat, shattering the small table in front of her. She said she saw body parts and trapped people covered in blood.

The mayor of the neighboring town of Urda, Manuel Galán, told Spanish public broadcaster TVE that civil protection authorities had asked his town hall to prepare a sports pavilion to accommodate passengers.

In January, 45 people died in southern Spain when a train left the tracks and hit an oncoming train. This is the deadliest accident in Spain since 2013, which left 80 dead. The January incident shook the European country’s confidence in its vast high-speed rail network.