The Spanish railway signal failure caused the train to automatically stop. The high-speed train involved in the accident chased and crashed at a speed of more than 160 kilometers, causing an accident.

Reuters reported on the 30th that a preliminary report on the Spanish railway collision on the 28th that resulted in the death of at least 69 people showed that the Spanish National Railways (RENFE) AVE high-speed train collided with the private company IRYO train at a speed of at least 160 kilometers per hour.

160 kilometers is equivalent to the designed maximum speed of the Taiwan Railways Puyuma.

According to the preliminary investigation report of the Independent Authority for the Technical Investigation of Accidents and Incidents (AITAT), a series of failures, erroneous instructions and improper actions under the necessary mitigation barrier ultimately led to this major traffic accident; AITAT estimated that the RENFE high-speed train was traveling at a speed of 160 to 200 kilometers per hour when it crashed into the IRYO train that was suspended on the track in front of it.

AITAT said it could not confirm the exact speed of the RENFE train at that time until relevant data from the train's "black box" was extracted.

It is understood that before the collision, many trains were forced to automatically stop due to a failure of the railway automatic signaling system, and the central control center in Madrid took over train dispatching. The Iryo train that was hit was also stopped on the track at the time, but the control center authorized the RENFE train behind it to continue running.

According to a recording of the communication between the traffic control center and the driver obtained by Spanish newspaper El País, the traffic control center personnel authorized the RENFE train to continue running at normal speed - but this violated relevant regulations. According to regulations, the train speed under such circumstances shall not exceed 40 kilometers per hour.