Audio reveals Spanish controllers told a train to resume 'normal speed' before it ploughed into a stalled one, killing 74
Wrecked carriages thrown down an embankment near Urda, Toledo, after controllers directed a Renfe train to resume at full speed into a stationary Iryo service carrying 147 passengers.Smoke rises from derailed carriages between Los Yébenes and Urda after the crash, which emergency crews feared could surpass the Adamuz disaster, where 46 people died in January.Mangled wreckage on its side after two high-speed trains collided in Toledo province, Spain, killing at least 39 people and leaving survivors scrambling clear while passengers remained trapped.The derailed train near Urda, Toledo, where a computer failure prompted controllers to direct a Renfe service to resume at full speed — a decision Spain's Transport Minister Óscar Puente said left operators with "more…
Spain's death toll from Wednesday's Toledo rail collision has risen to 74, with King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia cancelling official engagements to visit survivors at a hospital close to where the crash occurred. The audio recordings show controllers cleared the Renfe train — carrying 397 passengers — to travel at full speed even after the Iryo driver ahead had warned his security system would not let him move. Spain's transport minister Óscar Puente branded the control centre's decision 'inexplicable', saying operators had 'more than enough time' to correct the error.
Former employment minister Fátima Báñez, who served under PM Mariano Rajoy, was confirmed among the dead; she is understood to have been travelling in one of the carriages most severely affected by the impact.
Wednesday's disaster is Spain's second high-speed rail crash this year — a January collision involving the same two operators, Renfe and Iryo, killed 46 people.
A 78-year-old local pharmacist, Antonio Garcia, was among the first on the scene and described one passenger calmly asking for an ambulance after losing an arm.
