Spain’s deadliest rail disaster since 2013 was a high-speed train collision. Tuesday marks the start of three days of national mourning in Spain for the forty fatalities in a high-speed train accident that the prime minister has promised to look into. The late Sunday collision is Spain’s bloodiest train accident since 2013, when a train drove off a curved portion of track outside the northwest city of Santiago de Compostela, killing 80 people.
“Day of sorrow”
The most recent tragedy occurred when a train run by the rail firm Iryo derailed close to Adamuz in the southern Andalusia region when it was traveling from Malaga to Madrid. After crossing onto the opposite track, it collided with an approaching train, causing it to derail as well.During a visit to Adamuz on Monday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told reporters, “This is a day of sorrow for all of Spain, for our entire country,” announcing three days of mourning. “We will uncover the answer, and once the cause of this tragedy is determined, we will present it with absolute transparency.”
Death toll increases
Juan Manuel Moreno, the head of Andalucia’s regional administration, announced at a press conference that 40 deaths have been confirmed as a result of the collision, up from 39. “To know with certainty how many deaths have resulted from this terrible accident,” he continued, would take 24 to 48 hours. On Monday, heavy equipment was used to lift the train carriages with the worst damage and improve rescuers’ access to the accident scene. According to Moreno, more than 120 individuals were hurt, and 41 of them are still in hospitals in the neighboring city of Cordoba. In an attempt to locate missing passengers, friends and family have taken to social media, uploading pictures.
“Very peculiar”
The Guardia Civil police organization in Spain captured aerial footage of the disaster site, showing the two trains far apart while rescuers in bright neon vests worked close by. According to officials, the derailment happened on a straight stretch of track and the trains were moving under the speed limit, in contrast to the 2013 incident. According to Transport Minister Oscar Puente, the event was “extremely strange” because the first train to derail was “practically new” and the area of the track where it occurred had recently undergone renovations. According to train operator Iryo, the locomotive was constructed in 2022 and had just been examined three days prior to the mishap. It stated that it “veered onto the adjacent track for still unknown reasons” .
According to the business, over 300 passengers were traveling from the Andalusian city of Malaga to Madrid, the capital. The second train, which was headed to the southern city of Huelva, had 184 people, according to Renfe, its operator. Renfe President Alvaro Fernandez Heredia told Spanish public radio RNE that human error has “been practically ruled out.” Additionally, Heredia excluded speeding as a contributing factor in the collision. According to him, both trains were exceeding the 250 km/h limit for that particular stretch of track by slightly over 200 km/h (120 miles per hour).Iryo’s rolling stock or an infrastructural problem must be the cause,” he continued.
“Powerful hit”
With almost 3,000 kilometers of dedicated lines connecting major cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, and Malaga, Spain boasts the largest high-speed rail network in Europe. Lucas Meriako, a survivor who was on the initial derailing train, described it as “like a horror movie” to La Sexta television.There were numerous injuries as a result of the glass, he claimed. “We felt a very strong hit from behind and the feeling that the whole train was about to collapse, break.” As word of the disaster spread, inhabitants of Adamuz, whose orange-lined streets and white buildings shine, hurried to the town hall with supplies.
“We started bringing water, blankets, everything we could,” 60-year-old Manuel Munoz, who works in an olive oil business, told AFP. French President Emmanuel Macron and Pope Leo XIV were among those who expressed their sympathies.
