The death toll from Spain’s devastating train crash, which has already claimed 68 lives, could rise further as investigators examine a reported error in a railway control room that may have led to the collision.
Three carriages derailed after a train travelling from Madrid to Seville struck a stationary train on the same route near Toledo, shortly before 9am yesterday.
At least 68 people were killed and more than 100 injured. Survivors described the crash scene as “apocalyptic”, with one saying the wreckage looked “as if a bomb had been planted”.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente said an “inexplicable” instruction from a central command centre appeared to have played a role after a railway safety system malfunctioned.
The computer failure had brought every train on a 63km section of track to a standstill. Despite the system problem, central control instructed a Renfe service to resume its journey without imposing any speed limit.
Just over 20 minutes later, at 8.53am, the train crashed into the rear of the stationary Iryo service, around 100 miles south of Madrid. Several carriages were destroyed and thrown from the track. Reports said the locomotive was capable of reaching speeds of up to 185mph.
Mr Puente said the control centre “had more than enough time to verify the error”, but failed to resolve the problem.
He added: “The decision to resume traffic, while that system had not been restored, belongs to the control centre.”
Sixty-eight people died and more than 100 suffered injuries on Wednesday when two trains collided in Spain
The crash occurred shortly before 9am near the city of Toledo
The disaster occurred less than a year after another deadly rail accident in Spain, in which 46 people died when a train left the tracks and collided with an incoming service in the south of the country.
That earlier crash had already prompted serious concerns about railway safety. Following Wednesday’s tragedy, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the situation was “not acceptable”.
Mr Sanchez announced three days of national mourning beginning today. Opposition leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo also suspended his campaign, saying: “Spain has the right to know what is going on with its infrastructure.”
Passengers who survived the collision have recalled scenes of devastation and chaos in the immediate aftermath of the crash.
Sebastian Herrero, 46, was travelling on the Iryo train when the impact sent him into the seats. He said he was thrown into the air for “about four or five seconds” — an experience that felt “like a lifetime”.
He said three Iryo carriages at the rear of the train were so badly damaged that rescuers continued removing people from them and covering them with sheets. “Corpses. It’s apocalyptic,” he said.
“In those carriages, I find it very hard to believe there are any living people. It’s a twisted mass of metal. It’s as if they had planted a bomb.”
Another survivor, named Jesus, said he saw “a boy with an amputated arm walking away from the wreckage”.
Architect Joaquín Torres also described the final moments of a fellow passenger who had suffered catastrophic injuries.
“I went up to a woman who said she was cold… she died in my arms,” he said. “It was horrible — [she was] without legs, without arms.”
One carriage caught fire and smoke was still pouring from the mangled wreckage as emergency responders reached the scene. It emerged last night that Fatima Banez, Spain’s former employment minister, was among the dead.
Horrifying photographs showed a carriage impaled on a long steel rail that was forced through the floor and out of the roof.
Rail operator Adif said the incident occurred between the towns of Mora and Orgaz
A general view showing the derailed carriages of the two high-speed trains as emergency services arrive at the scene
Emergency services are seen at the site of a train collision between a high speed Renfe AVE train and Iryo train around 150kms south of Madrid between Urda and Los Yebenes in the province of Toledo
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is pictured at the scene of the crash
Others showed passengers climbing out of twisted, broken carriages. David Gomez, a construction worker, was on a job with his brother and a colleague nearby when they heard the crash and ran to help.
‘People were trying to get out through the windows. We cut through some fences to access the area and treated people with first-aid kits we brought,’ he said. ‘As I was trying to pull a young woman out, there was a piece of a leg.’
One survivor said his carriage was ‘completely wrecked’, adding: ‘The impact was tremendous.
‘The carriage was completely destroyed. A man fell on top of me, but we were able to help him. It was a very dramatic scene.’
Another passenger said she was left ‘spinning on the floor’ by the impact.
Miguel, a passenger travelling with colleagues in the rear car of one of the trains, said: ‘We heard a massive roar… that went on for ten seconds, as if the train were about to derail.
‘Through the right-hand window, we could see a wrecked train – it must have been the other one.’
The crash came the day before a 24-hour work stoppage at Renfe by Spain’s biggest train drivers’ union.
Earlier this month, the union said: ‘Our goal is to change the system and make it safer. We demand real and definitive technical solutions to the safety and reliability issues that have long plagued our rolling stock.’
Speaking from the crash site, Prime Minister Sanchez said: ‘The whole of Spain is grieving,’ before adding that the authorities would determine the cause of the accident and take action if wrongdoing is uncovered.
He added: ‘If there has been negligence, it will be known.’