Spain's transport minister blames an 'inexplicable' order to restart a train for the crash that killed 68 and refuses to quit
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.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.
Traffic controllers at Adif, Spain's state-owned rail infrastructure manager, gave a Renfe high-speed train the green light to restart its Madrid-to-Seville journey at normal speed at 8:36 a.m. — even though an Iryo train was stopped on the same tracks ahead. The automatic LZB safety system had failed along a 63-kilometre stretch, halting six trains, but controllers bypassed it with a fatal human decision. Transport minister Óscar Puente attended a news conference after reviewing audio recordings of communications between the Madrid control centre and the trains.
Puente refused to say whether he would resign, insisting: 'What I am thinking about is clarifying this, I am not thinking about myself.'
Rail unions had already scheduled a 24-hour strike for Thursday demanding safer conditions, one day after the crash killed 68 and injured 80.
Spain has now suffered four fatal rail incidents in 2026, including a January crash near Adamuz that killed 46 — both on the same Madrid-Andalusia corridor.
