Spain probes train crash cause
Officials and unions clash over responsibility for the Toledo collision that killed 69.
By Nathan Reed ·
Spain’s high-speed rail network, once hailed as a global model, has suffered two fatal accidents in ten months, prompting a split over whether the Toledo crash resulted from individual error or systemic neglect.
Transport Minister Óscar Puente attributed the majority of the blame for the Wednesday collision to a traffic controller who authorized a train to resume full speed while another remained stopped. The accident killed 69 people in the province of Toledo.
Railway unions rejected that assessment. They argued that a shortage of staff and aging safety equipment made the error inevitable. The unions stated that controllers had been managing increasing workloads without adequate support for years.
The incident occurred on the Madrid-Sevilla line, which sees 45 million passengers annually. It follows a January derailment on the same route that killed 46 people. Spain operates the second-largest high-speed rail network in the world, behind only China. The line had been free of fatal accidents for more than three decades prior to this year.
Government data indicates the sequence began at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday when the LZB communication system failed. This system monitors train positions and can trigger automatic braking. The failure forced human controllers in Madrid to manually oversee a 63-kilometer stretch of track where six trains were operating.
At 8:36, a controller signaled a state-owned RENFE train to return to normal speed. A private IRYO train located 25 kilometers ahead attempted to move but could not cancel its automatic stop. The collision occurred at 8:53.
Independent investigators determined the RENFE train was traveling between 160 and 200 kilometers per hour at the time of impact. Police with tracking dogs inspected the wreckage on Friday morning. Investigators removed the black boxes on Thursday and handed them to the Civil Guard.
King Felipe VI visited injured passengers in a Toledo hospital on Thursday. He stated that the investigation must determine how and why the catastrophe happened and what measures are needed to prevent a recurrence.
Puente called the controller’s decision
inexplicable
Source: The Hour
