At kilometer 118 near Urda, not far from Toledo, a collision between two high-speed trains on the Madrid-Seville line caused at least 69 deaths and more than 100 injuries, of which 18 were in serious conditions. Dozens of people are still missing. An Ave train of the public company Renfe and an Iryo - a company owned by Fs Internacional - were involved, with 397 and 147 people on board respectively, including a newborn. The first convoy, traveling at around 200 kilometers per hour, hit the second directly, which was stopped due to a fault in the control system of the Urda station.
A compatriot who was missing yesterday evening has been identified and is not in serious condition. Then there are 5 Italian passengers recovered in stable conditions from the 2 trains involved. A sixth is hospitalized in a hospital in Toledo: he is the brother of one of the two citizens who still remain missing.
In the minutes preceding the clash, a failure in the communications of three computers on the network would have put the LZB security system out of service in a stretch of approximately 63 kilometres. The anomaly would have caused the automatic stopping of the trains in circulation: six, including the two involved in the collision. With the main system out of service, the Adif control center in Madrid's Atocha station would take over management of rail traffic. It is in this phase that, according to reconstructions, the decisive human error occurred.
"Resume normal travel": this is the order given by the Atocha railway control center in Madrid to the driver of the Ave high-speed train and that of the other train involved, of the Iryo company, before the collision. Three audio recordings, published by El Pais and the public broadcaster TVE, document the communications between the drivers and the control center in the minutes preceding the tragedy, highlighting alleged errors by the center itself. According to the reconstruction, at 8.36 the Ave train, which was approximately 25 km away behind the Iryo, on the same track heading south, after the stop caused by the failure of the Lzb automatic control system, received authorization to restart at normal speed, instead of proceeding in "visual" mode, i.e. with a maximum speed limit of 40 kilometers per hour, as required by the safety protocol. And even though the Iryo was still stopped ahead. At 8:41 it was the Iryo driver who reported the connection problem with the automatic system. Nonetheless, he received the same instruction to leave at normal speed. Seven minutes later, at 8.48, the driver announced again that she was stopped: "The train doesn't allow me to start the Lzb system. This is why I'm still stopped in front of the entrance sign to Urda". An interlocutory response comes from the controller: "Okay, as soon as you can. And if you have any problems, call us." It does not appear from the recorded conversations that at that moment the control center gave the order to the Ave, which in the meantime had resumed circulation at normal speed, reaching 200 km/h, to stop, due to the Iryo blocking the road. The reconstruction, the media reports, highlights a sequence of errors in authorizations and in the management of reports.
The death of Fatima Bañez, former Spanish Minister of Labor and president of the Foundation of the Confederation of Industrialists (CEOE), has been confirmed. She had been part of the governments of the popular Mariano Rajoy from 2011 to 2018. A graduate in Economics and Law, 59 years old, mother of two children, she was on board the Iryo convoy.
The Spanish monarchs Felipe VI and Letizia arrived at the University Hospital of Toledo this afternoon to visit those injured in the train accident. The royals canceled all their commitments during the three days of national mourning, as did Queen Emeritus Sofia.
Pope Leo XIV sent a message in which he said he was "deeply saddened" by the "tragic train accident" in Spain. The Pontiff prays for the victims and expresses "his heartfelt condolences to the families", together with "words of comfort, of deep sympathy in their pain and the wish for a speedy recovery for the injured". Finally, Leone encourages rescue workers "to continue in their commitment to assistance".
