Spain Orders Rail Inquiry After 68 Killed in Second Major Crash This Year
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declared a national day of mourning Wednesday after a high-speed train struck a stationary one near Urda, four weeks before the country’s general election.
By Harper Foster ·
Spain’s high-speed rail network, once considered a national engineering triumph, suffered its second fatal disaster in less than a year on Wednesday. A collision near the town of Urda in the central province of Toledo left 68 people dead and dozens more hospitalized.
The accident occurred when a RENFE train struck an IRYO train from behind at 8:53 a.m. The crash happened just four weeks before Spain’s national election, intensifying political pressure on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Sánchez visited the site and declared three days of mourning beginning Thursday.
Transport Minister Óscar Puente stated that the crash resulted from a human error at a central command center rather than a fault with the train engineers. A computer malfunction disabled the security system on a 63-kilometer stretch of track at 8:30 a.m., causing all trains to stop. The IRYO train halted near Urda, while the RENFE train stopped 25 kilometers behind it.
Minutes later, central command instructed the RENFE train to resume travel without speed restrictions. Puente described this order as "inexplicable" because a stop signal remained active on the line. He argued the train should have been told to move at a reduced speed if it was to start moving at all.
This incident follows a January crash in southern Spain where 46 people died when a train jumped the tracks and hit another traveling in the opposite direction. Both crashes involved one train operated by the state-owned RENFE and one by the private operator IRYO. Spain opened its high-speed rail service to private companies in 2021.
Political tensions rose immediately following the news. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the Popular Party, called for a full investigation and canceled his party’s campaign events for the day. He stated that respecting the victims meant not ignoring the questions Spaniards were asking.
Santiago Abascal, the leader of the far-right Vox party, was less restrained. He called the government a "criminal organization" and vowed to work until it faced a courtroom. Sánchez’s Socialist party now faces criticism over rail safety alongside ongoing debates about housing costs and migration policies ahead of the vote.
Source: KPBS
