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…
The train struck the stationary Iryo service at 8:53am. More than 540 passengers were on board the two trains; 15 survivors remain in critical condition in hospital. Puente insisted the train engineers bore no blame for the collision.
Spain has declared three days of national mourning — its second major rail disaster in a year.
Civil Guard officers are questioning the specific controller who was managing traffic on the Madrid-Seville line when the fatal order was issued.
