Two high-speed trains collided near Toledo in central Spain on Wednesday morning, killing 68 people and injuring dozens more, according to figures released by local authorities and reported by Corriere della Sera. The crash happened shortly before 9am at kilometre 118 of the Madrid–Seville high-speed line, between the towns of Mora, Orgaz and Urda. Fifteen of the injured are reported to be in very serious condition.
Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, travelled to the site and announced three days of national mourning. He said the government would investigate thoroughly and that any negligence would be made public.
Why it matters
The collision is the second fatal high-speed rail accident in Spain this year, following a crash in January at Adamuz in the province of Córdoba in which 46 people died. El Mundo described it as a disastrous year for Spanish high-speed rail, a phrase picked up in Corriere della Sera's coverage. Sánchez said it was unacceptable for a country like Spain to suffer two high-speed accidents in the same year, while noting that the two cases appear to have different causes. He added that safety would be reinforced if needed to restore confidence in the rail system.
The crash also raises immediate questions about how a train was cleared to move onto a section of track where another service was standing.
How the collision happened
According to transport minister Óscar Puente, the crash was most likely the result of human error at the Madrid control centre, and the train drivers bear no responsibility. He called the sequence of events implausible.
Puente said that at around 8:30am the LZB signalling system at Urda station failed because of a communication problem involving three computers on the network. As a result, 63 kilometres of track temporarily lost the safety system, which automatically halted every train moving through that section. Control then passed to Adif's round-the-clock operations centre at Madrid-Atocha.
Trains were subsequently authorised to restart by the control centre. The Iryo service involved in the crash could not get moving again and remained on the track. It was there when it was struck by the Renfe AVE train, which had resumed its journey. Puente described the decision to let that train proceed as inexplicable.
The impact was severe and caused a derailment: carriages from both trains left the rails and came down a embankment.
The Renfe train had left Madrid-Puerta de Atocha at 8:00am bound for Seville. It was carrying 397 passengers. The Iryo train was carrying 146 people, including a newborn baby. In total, 544 passengers were on board the two services, among them a very young child.
Italians on board and a former minister among the dead
Italy's foreign ministry said five Italian nationals were on the Iryo train. Four are in good condition. The fifth, a woman from the province of Pistoia who is registered with the register of Italians abroad, is the subject of ongoing checks and is currently listed as missing. The four confirmed Italians come from Sassari, Bergamo, Rome and Cosenza, and all live abroad.
The foreign ministry said Italy's consul in Madrid had reached the crash site. No further reports had reached the crisis unit or diplomatic offices in Madrid at the time of the statement. Foreign minister Antonio Tajani asked for a crisis cell to be set up at the Italian embassy to stay in contact with the Spanish authorities.
Also among the dead is Fátima Báñez, Spain's former labour minister, who served in the Popular Party government under Mariano Rajoy from 2011 to 2018. She was initially reported missing. Báñez, who heads the Spanish business confederation CEOE, was travelling to Seville for an event held by the Andalusian employers' confederation to mark Enterprise Day.
A priest who attended the scene described it to ANSA as something out of Dante.
Political fallout
The disaster has drawn criticism from Spanish football figures. Atlético Madrid's Marcos Llorente attacked the transport minister, saying the situation was a disaster and that Puente was spending time on social media instead of doing his job, according to Corriere della Sera. Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois also joined the criticism.
The reporting from Il Fatto Quotidiano focused on the 17 minutes around the crash, pointing to the failure of the safety system and errors in the control room as central to the sequence of events.
What happens next depends on the official investigation Sánchez has promised, and on whether the government follows through on strengthening safety on a network that has now suffered two fatal high-speed accidents within a single year.
