Spain refuses to rule out human error after an 'inexplicable' order sent a train into a crash killing 68
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 Transport Minister Óscar Puente spent Wednesday morning listening to recordings of communications between Madrid's central control centre and the two doomed trains before confirming that traffic controllers at state-owned infrastructure firm Adif had issued the fatal authorisation. More than 540 passengers were on board both high-speed services when the Renfe train, cleared to operate without speed restrictions, collided with the stationary Iryo service near Los Yébenes and Urda in Toledo province, sending carriages rolling down an embankment.
Puente said the train's speed at the moment of impact with the stopped Iryo service may have reached up to 200 km/h, with the wrecked carriages believed to contain most of the 68 dead.
The disaster comes just one day after rail unions had planned a 24-hour strike over longstanding safety fears, with drivers demanding 'real and definitive technical solutions'.
Spain's second deadly high-speed collision this year — 46 were killed in January near Adamuz — has prompted calls for Puente himself to resign.
