What to know about the fatal train crashes in Spain
MADRID (AP) — Two fatal train crashes in two days have rocked Spain, which is in national mourning, and the tragedies have led to questions about safety on the country’s railway system.
The first tragedy involved a high-speed train in southern Spain that derailed on Sunday evening, colliding with another fast train, killing at least 43 people and injuring more than 150.
The crash was the deadliest in Spain since a 2013 crash that killed 80 people when a commuter train in the northern region of Galicia hurtled off the rails as it came around a bend going too fast.
On Tuesday night, another train crash happened in northeastern Spain on a commuter line near Barcelona. At least one person was killed.
Here’s what to know about the two crashes.
Derailment and collision
The Sunday derailment happened at 7:45 p.m. when the tail end of a train carrying 289 passengers on the route from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, went off the rails. It slammed into an incoming train traveling from Madrid to Huelva carrying around 200 people, according to rail operator Adif.
The head of the second train took the brunt of the impact, Transport Minister Óscar Puente said. That collision knocked its first two carriages off the track and sent them plummeting down a four-meter (13-foot) slope. The collision took place near Adamuz, a town in the province of Cordoba, about 370 kilometers (about 230 miles) south of Madrid.
“The impact was so incredibly violent that we have found bodies hundreds of meters away,” Andalusia’s regional President Juan Manuel Moreno said.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declared three days of national mourning starting Tuesday, when King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visited the crash site.
Spain’s Guardia Civil security force is collecting DNA samples from family members who worry they have loved ones among the dead.
Cause under investigation
Explanations about what caused the crash were scant, with an official investigation underway.
Álvaro Fernández, the president of national railway company Renfe, told Spanish public radio RNE that both trains were traveling well under the speed limit of 250 kph (155 mph) and “human error could be ruled out.”
Transport Minister Puente called the crash “truly strange” since it happened on a flat stretch of track that had been renovated in May. But Puente said late Monday that officials had found a broken section of track.
“Now we have to determine if that is a cause or a consequence (of the derailment),” Puente told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser.
The train that jumped the track belonged to the private company Iryo, while the second train, which took the brunt of the impact, belonged to Renfe.
Iryo said in a statement Monday that its train was manufactured in 2022 and passed its latest safety check on Jan. 15.
The Spanish Union of Railway Drivers told The Associated Press that it sent a letter in August asking Spain’s national railway operator to investigate flaws on train lines across the country and to reduce speeds at certain points until the tracks were fully repaired. Those recommendations were made for high-speed train lines, including the one where Sunday’s crash took place, the union said.
High-speed expansion
Spain has spent decades investing heavily in high-speed trains. It currently has the largest rail network in Europe for trains traveling more than 250 kph (155 mph), with more than 3,900 kilometers (2,400 miles) of track, according to the International Union of Railways.
The network is a popular, competitively priced and safe mode of transport. Officials said that Sunday’s collision was the first with deaths on Spain’s high-speed rail network since it opened its first line in 1992.
Commuter line crash
A Barcelona commuter train crashed Tuesday after a retaining wall fell onto the tracks, Spanish regional authorities said, killing one person and injuring at least 37 others.
While Spain’s high-speed rail network generally runs smoothly, and at least until Sunday had been a source of confidence, the commuter rail service is plagued by reliability issues. However, crashes causing injury or death are not common.