URDA, Spain — Spain's second high-speed rail disaster this year, a crash in which one train struck another from behind, killing 68 people, has raised fresh concerns about the safety of the country's rail network.
Spain's network of high-speed rail has been considered one of the nation's crowning achievements. It ranks second to China in track mileage in the world. Until this year, it had not endured a deadly crash since coming into service over three decades ago.
The collision Wednesday that turned a sleepy stretch of rail lined by olive groves into a scene of carnage came just four weeks before the country votes in a national election.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the crash site in the central province of Toledo after regional authorities confirmed that more than 60 people had died and dozens more were being treated at hospitals.
Only in January, 46 people had died when one train jumped the track and slammed into the side of another going the opposite way in southern Spain.
Sánchez pledged an investigation into the latest collision and improvements to prevent another tragedy like the two that have shaken trust in a rail system that carried 45 million travelers last year, including millions of tourists.
"It is clear that we need to reinforce the safety of our train service to rebuild the trust in our high-speed rail," Sánchez said. "It is not acceptable for a country like Spain to endure two high-speed train accidents in the same year."
Sánchez's government declared three days of mourning starting Thursday.
Both deadly crashes this year involved a train operated by the state-owned RENFE company and one from the privately owned IRYO. Spain only liberalized its high-speed rail service in 2021, with the Italian IRYO starting service the following year.
Political implications for Sánchez ahead of election
Sánchez has weathered many crises since taking power in 2018, staying in power and winning reelection after the COVID-19 pandemic and the global rise in inflation.
But polls show he faces another uphill battle when voters cast ballots in Spain's first national election since 2023. The new rail disaster can't help the prospects of his Socialist party.
Sánchez and other progressive parties had hoped to leverage a wave of discontent over housing costs and high rents when he called for early elections earlier this month.
About an hour before news of Wednesday's crash spread, Sánchez had posted on X a message that "There are lots of reasons to be optimistic about this country."
Now it appears he will have to handle concerns over the state of Spain's rail service along with attacks from right-wing parties over his liberal migration policies and accusations of corruption against his party and his wife, which both he and his wife deny.
His transport minister, Óscar Puente, had to handle media questions over whether he would resign following a second major train wreck under his watch. His response was that he was fully focused on dealing with the collision, not his future.
Sánchez's main rival, Popular Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, demanded a full investigation of the crash. The conservative leader said that in respect for the victims his party canceled its campaign events for the day.
"This is the moment to respect the dead, the injured and their families," Núñez Feijóo said. "That does not mean we will ignore the fact that Spaniards are asking tough questions that demand answers."
The far-right Vox leader, Santiago Abascal, who is likely hoping to enter a coalition government with the conservatives, did not show the same restraint.
"More dead. Another tragedy. More rage over being left to fend for ourselves, the despair and the betrayal that Spaniards are enduring," Abascal said just hours after the crash.
"I promise to work tirelessly until this government, which is a criminal organization, is sitting in a courtroom to answer for its crimes," he said.
Human error was behind the crash
Puente said that the crash was caused by what he called the "inexplicable" order from a central command center for Spain's trains after a security system had failed. He said the train engineers were not to blame.
Puente said that at 8:30 a.m. the security system on a stretch of 63 kilometers (39 miles) stopped working due to a computer malfunction, causing all trains on that stretch to stop. At that point the IRYO train was stopped near the town of Urda, while the RENFE train was 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) behind it.
But a few minutes later the central command told the RENFE train to start running again without any speed restrictions, and it ended up colliding with the stationary IRYO train at 8:53 a.m.
Puente said that the train should never have been told to start moving again since there was still a "stop signal" active on that line. And if it had, at least it should have been told to go at reduced speed.
Workers started to use cranes to move parts of the damaged trains late on Wednesday after a hectic day involving hundreds of emergency workers, firefighters, police and soldiers all pitching in to rescue survivors and recover bodies.
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