Spanish investigators focus on Madrid rail controllers over 'inexplicable' order that sent a train into another, killing at least 69
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 has confirmed that the safety system covering a 63km section of track failed at 8.30am, triggering automatic stops — yet controllers in Madrid then told a Renfe train to resume at full speed with no restrictions, a decision Puente called "clearly wrong." The train may have been doing up to 200km/h when it struck the stationary Iryo service at 8.53am; the two trains were carrying more than 540 passengers between them. More than 50 people remain in hospital, 15 in a critical condition, as dog units continue to search the wreckage.
Civil Guard and Railway Accident Investigation Commission officers are interviewing the control centre operator responsible for that line at the time.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the crash site near Urda, but critics have already noted that both of this year's rail disasters have taken place within his eight years in power.
