Symbolic imageDeath toll reaches 68 after high-speed trains collide near Toledo
A Renfe train rear-ended a stationary Iryo train south of Madrid on Wednesday, killing at least 68 people. Transport minister Óscar Puente says a control centre wrongly sent the Renfe train on.
The collision happened at about 9 a.m. on Wednesday, 28 October, in Castilla-La Mancha, with 147 people on the Iryo train and 397 on the Renfe service, a regional government spokesperson said. Regional president Emiliano García-Page put the toll at 68 and said rescuers expect more victims; the Financial Times reports that at least 40 of the dead were on the Iryo train. Injury counts differ: 58 according to the regional government, 80 (15 of them very serious) according to health minister Mónica García.
Wrong order from control centre
Puente said a computer communications failure triggered a red signal that stopped traffic, after which a control centre told the halted Renfe train to restart around 8.36 a.m.: "Clearly it was the wrong decision." El País, citing government sources, suspects an operator at Madrid's Atocha control centre, according to Koha. Renfe says its train proceeded as instructed; Iryo and Adif did not comment.
Second disaster this year
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the cause appears unrelated to the January crash that killed 46 and was linked to a rail weld fracture, and promised a strong response to any negligence. Parties suspended campaigning before the 29 November election, and Vox leader Santiago Abascal called the crash a sign of deteriorating infrastructure.