Spain Probe Fatal Train Collision Before Vote

Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente said a central command center gave an "inexplicable" order that sent a RENFE train into a stationary IRYO train near the town of Urda on Wednesday morning, killing 68 people. Puente said train engineers were not at fault.

Puente said a security system on a 63-kilometer stretch of track stopped working at 8:30 a.m. after a computer malfunction, halting all trains there. The IRYO train stopped near Urda, and a RENFE train sat 25 kilometers behind it. Minutes later, the command center told the RENFE train to proceed without speed limits. It struck the stopped IRYO train at 8:53 a.m.

Puente said a stop signal was still active on the line and the train should not have been cleared to move. If it had been cleared, he said, it should have been ordered to run at reduced speed. His government declared three days of mourning starting Thursday.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the crash site in Toledo province after regional authorities confirmed more than 60 deaths and dozens of hospitalizations. He pledged an investigation and safety improvements. "It is clear that we need to reinforce the safety of our train service to rebuild the trust in our high-speed rail," Sánchez said. "It is not acceptable for a country like Spain to endure two high-speed train accidents in the same year."

The collision occurred four weeks before a national election, the first since 2023. Sánchez took office in 2018 and has governed through the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation. Polls show his Socialist party faces a difficult race.

Popular Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo called for a full investigation and said his party canceled campaign events for the day. "This is the moment to respect the dead, the injured and their families," Núñez Feijóo said. "That does not mean we will ignore the fact that Spaniards are asking tough questions that demand answers."

Vox leader Santiago Abascal struck a different tone. "More dead. Another tragedy. More rage over being left to fend for ourselves, the despair and the betrayal that Spaniards are enduring," he said hours after the crash.

Both crashes this year involved a state-owned RENFE train and a privately operated IRYO train. Spain opened its high-speed rail market to private operators in 2021, and IRYO began service in 2022. The rail network carried 45 million travelers last year. Cranes began moving damaged train parts late Wednesday, with hundreds of emergency workers, firefighters, police and soldiers at the site.