Spain's transport minister refuses resignation calls after admitting a train was sent past a RED SIGNAL, killing at least 68
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.
Spain's transport minister Oscar Puente refused to say whether he would resign on Wednesday after confirming that a Renfe high-speed train was authorised to continue its journey past an active red signal, directly causing the collision that killed at least 68 people and left 80 more injured. The crash occurred just after 9am near Urda and Los Yébenes in Toledo province, when the Renfe service struck an Iryo train that had stopped on the Madrid-Seville line due to a signal fault. A person briefed on the disaster said a computer communications failure had halted rail traffic, but an "erroneous decision" was then taken to restart the Renfe train in breach of protocol.
The collision is Spain's deadliest rail disaster in a decade and the second fatal high-speed crash this year, after 46 died in January near Cordoba.
A total of 544 passengers were on board the two trains; at least three carriages derailed, with one shredded and debris scattered down an embankment below the elevated track.
'A rear-end collision on the Spanish railway network is a truly implausible accident,' Puente told reporters, while insisting the country's rail network remains 'reliable and safe.'
