Spain Investigates Restart Order After Rail Collision Kills at Least 68

Spain’s transport minister said an order to restart a train after a safety-system failure was central to an October 28 collision that killed at least 68 people, intensifying scrutiny of the country’s high-speed railway after its second fatal crash of the year.

A state-operated RENFE train struck the rear of a stationary IRYO train near Urda in Toledo province. Both were traveling south from Madrid toward Seville. Regional authorities reported 58 people receiving hospital treatment as rescue teams searched the damaged carriages.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the scene and announced three days of national mourning. He called for stronger safety measures to restore confidence in a network long presented as a national achievement.

“It is unacceptable for a country like Spain to suffer two high-speed rail accidents in the same year,” he said.

Safety System Stopped Working Before Impact

Transport Minister Óscar Puente said a computer malfunction disabled a safety system across 63 kilometers of track at approximately 8:30 a.m., causing trains in that section to stop.

A central command center subsequently told the RENFE train to resume movement without a speed restriction even though a stop signal remained active, he said. It collided with the IRYO service at 8:53 a.m.

Puente described the instruction as inexplicable and said the train engineers were not to blame. Authorities were still examining the train’s speed; he said it could have been traveling at up to 200 kilometers an hour on that stretch.

His account is the government’s initial explanation of the sequence. The technical investigation must establish how the malfunction and operating instructions combined before impact.

Passengers Describe Abrupt Braking and Debris

The RENFE service carried 397 passengers and the IRYO train 147, authorities said. The impact derailed the front of the RENFE train and two rear carriages of the stopped service.

Passenger Ignacio Relaño told state broadcaster TVE that the RENFE train had briefly stopped, restarted and then slowed abruptly before the collision. Luggage and phones flew through the carriage, he said.

Nearby construction workers reached the scene before emergency crews. One worker told El País that they cut through fencing and used their first-aid supplies to help passengers trying to escape through windows.

Ambulances and helicopters transported casualties, while buses took away uninjured survivors. A military emergency brigade assisted, and rail services between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia were suspended.

Earlier Crash Deepens Safety Scrutiny

The collision followed a January disaster in which an IRYO train derailed and hit an oncoming RENFE service, killing 46 people. The two incidents have put pressure on a high-speed network with roughly 3,900 kilometers of track.

Spain opened its dedicated high-speed system in 1992 and later introduced private operators, including IRYO in 2022. Rail-worker representatives have questioned whether maintenance kept pace with increased traffic.

Union spokesperson Joan Rodríguez told TVE that heavier network use was a factor worth examining, while explicitly stopping short of saying liberalization caused the crashes.

The October investigation now centers on a concrete sequence: an automated safeguard failed, trains stopped, one service was told to move again and a fatal collision followed. Establishing why that instruction was issued will be a key part of the safety reckoning Sánchez has demanded.

References: High-speed train collision kills at least 68 in Spain’s 2nd deadly rail crash this year