Spain Orders Investigation After Second Fatal Rail Crash
A collision in Toledo killed 68 people just four weeks before a national election, prompting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to pledge safety upgrades.
By Anthony Lawson ·
A rear-end collision on Spain's high-speed rail network killed 68 people in the central province of Toledo on Wednesday.
The crash occurred on a stretch of track near the town of Urda, where olive groves line the rail corridor. The incident marks the second deadly high-speed rail disaster in Spain within the last ten months. Regional authorities confirmed the death toll of 68, with dozens of additional victims receiving treatment at local hospitals.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the site after regional officials reported the fatalities. He declared three days of national mourning beginning Thursday and pledged a full investigation into the incident. Sánchez stated that the government must reinforce safety measures to rebuild public trust in a rail system that carried 45 million travelers last year. He noted that it is not acceptable for a country with such a developed network to experience two high-speed accidents in a single year.
Transport Minister Óscar Puente identified a human error in a central command center as the cause of the crash. At 8:30 a.m., a computer malfunction caused the security system on a 63-kilometer stretch to fail, halting all trains. An IRYO train stopped near Urda, while a state-owned RENFE train remained 25 kilometers behind. Minutes later, the command center instructed the RENFE train to resume travel without speed restrictions. The RENFE train struck the stationary IRYO train at 8:53 a.m. Puente said the engineers were not at fault and that the train should have remained stopped or moved at a reduced speed.
The timing of the crash complicates the political landscape ahead of the national election scheduled for four weeks from now. Both fatal accidents this year involved a RENFE train and an IRYO train. Spain opened its high-speed rail market to private competition in 2021, with IRYO beginning service the following year. The network, which ranks second in the world only to China in track mileage, had not seen a deadly crash since coming into service more than three decades ago.
Sánchez faces pressure from rivals as he prepares for the first national election since 2023. Polls indicate his Socialist party faces an uphill battle against right-wing opponents. Popular Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo called for a comprehensive investigation and canceled campaign events to honor the victims. He stated that while the party respects the dead, Spaniards are asking tough questions that require answers.
Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Vox party, criticized the government's handling of the crisis. He described the event as a betrayal and vowed to pursue legal accountability for the administration. Workers used cranes late Wednesday to move damaged sections of the trains after hundreds of emergency personnel, firefighters, police, and soldiers worked to rescue survivors and recover bodies.
