A Renfe train struck a stationary Iryo train south of Madrid on Wednesday morning. Eighty people are being treated for injuries, officials warn the toll could rise, and the cause is under investigation.
At least 64 people were killed when a Renfe high-speed train ran into the back of a stationary Iryo train in Spain's Toledo province on Wednesday morning, 28 October, the Castilla-La Mancha regional government said, warning that the death toll could rise further. The collision happened just after 09:00 local time (08:00 GMT) between the municipalities of Mora and Orgaz, about 140 km south of Madrid, on the high-speed line linking the capital with Andalusia, and at least two carriages fell down an embankment, the BBC reported. Regional government spokesperson Esther Padilla said the Iryo train was carrying 146 passengers and a baby and the Renfe train 397 passengers. Authorities said 80 people were being treated for injuries, 50 of them in a serious condition and 15 in a critical condition. The BBC has also cited a figure of at least 68 deaths that Reporix has not been able to match to an official statement; all casualty figures remain provisional.
The cause of the crash has not been officially established. Transport Minister Óscar Puente said a computer failure had initially halted six moving trains, including the two that later collided, and that the control centre, which takes over when the system fails, then allowed the trains to move again without speed restrictions, a decision he said was taken "under inexplicable circumstances", according to the BBC. A source told Reuters, as cited by the Guardian, that the Iryo train had stopped because of a signalling fault on the orders of infrastructure manager Adif. Iryo said its train was "struck from behind" for causes still unknown, while Renfe said its train had been instructed to continue and crashed "for reasons we don't know". The minister's remarks are a preliminary account, and no investigative findings have been published. Visiting the site, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said "the whole of Spain is grieving" and that "if there has been any negligence, it will come to light."
Fire crews and helicopters were deployed to the scene, and hospitals in Toledo, Ciudad Real and Alcázar de San Juan suspended planned procedures to receive casualties, Spanish media reported, while Madrid's Centro de Transfusión appealed for urgent blood donations. Adif halted all traffic on the line, and Renfe said services between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia remain suspended. Sánchez and other politicians cancelled their public engagements, including campaigning for next month's parliamentary elections, and the EU said it was ready to help. It is Spain's second deadly high-speed rail crash this year: in January, a collision near Adamuz in Andalusia killed 46 people on the same Madrid–Andalusia line and involved the same two operators, the Guardian noted. Wednesday's crash came a day before a planned 24-hour work stoppage at Renfe by the country's largest train drivers' union, which has demanded solutions to safety and reliability problems.
