68 dead: Serious train accident overshadows Spain’s election campaign

The first report that appeared in the Spanish media shortly after 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning didn’t bode well. “It could be even worse than Adamuz,” warned a government source in Madrid. Adamuz is the name of a small town in Andalusia that brings back dark memories in Spain.

In January there was a private operator’s high-speed train there That derailed and with an oncoming state railway company train Renfe collides. 46 people died and more than 150 were injured. It was one of the worst rail accidents in the country’s history.

Now, a good nine months later, things have changed Spain again devastating train accident happened: Near cheese Two high-speed trains collided shortly before 9 a.m. in Toledo province on Wednesday. After there was initially talk of ten and later 30 deaths, the fears turned out to be true: things turned out to be even worse than in Adamuz.

According to preliminary information from the regional government of Castile-La Mancha, at least 68 people died. 58 others were taken to hospital, 15 of whom are in critical condition.

What happened?

The exact background is still unclear. What is certain is that the Iryo train, in which 147 passengers were traveling from Madrid to Seville, came to a standstill on the open road 120 kilometers south of the capital. The following Renfe AVE train with 397 people on board hit him.

There had previously been a malfunction in the LZB security system, which controls high-speed traffic. As a result, all trains on the affected section of the route had to stop. Then it happened, the newspaper reports The Countryto “double human failure.”

Because: If the automated security system fails, it switches to manual operation. And a dispatcher from the railway network operator Adif apparently instructed all trains to continue their journey, including the Renfe train, even though the Iryo train was on the tracks 25 kilometers in front of it – and could not start for unknown reasons.

In addition, the dispatcher apparently gave the green light to continue the journey at normal speed, even though departure “on sight” is mandatory in such situations. During the entire time it took the Renfe train to travel the 25 kilometers to Iryo, it gave no instruction to stop.

Huge impact

It is not yet known how fast the train was ultimately traveling. However, speeds of up to 200 km/h are permitted on this section of the route. The force of the impact was so strong that two wagons derailed and fell down a slope. The emergency services had to fight through the rubble to reach the injured and dead.

Passengers report dramatic scenes: “After we got to Atocha (the train station in Madrid, note) When we left, the train stood still for a few minutes. We were told there were disruptions on the route,” says 60-year-old Ana María The Country. “Then he drove off and within a few minutes everything happened (…) I was thrown towards the suitcases. Everything fell on my head.” Her husband suffered a head injury.

“It was a terrible collision. The wagon partially overturned. We saw completely destroyed wagons next to it,” says Miguel Ángel Pérez, who was in the last Renfe wagon, on television.

After the accident, train services on the route between Madrid and Andalusia were suspended. More than 100 trains were affected.

Lots of open questions

The disaster caused horror and many unanswered questions throughout Spain and beyond. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchezwho arrived at the scene of the accident in the afternoon, declared three days of national mourning and promised to “get to the bottom of the matter.” For a country like Spain, it is “unacceptable to suffer two high-speed train accidents in a single year.”

For him and his socialist party, the tragedy comes at an inopportune time. Parliamentary elections called by him will take place on November 29th. Confidence in his Transport Minister Óscar Puente, who is a close confidant, is likely to have fallen further after Urda and Adamuz. In a statement, Puente spoke of an “inexplicable” event and was “deeply shocked”. However, he ruled out resigning.

All parties – with the exception of Vox – have temporarily suspended their election campaign dates. The right-wing party made accusations against the government on Wednesday. The conservative People’s Party (PP) also quickly went into confrontation. “Enough!” was posted on social media.