‘Inexplicable’ order led to train collision in which at least 68 people died

One high-speed Spanish train slammed into another that had stopped on the tracks on Wednesday, killing at least 68 people and shredding carriages in the country’s second deadly rail collision this year.

The regional government for Castilla La Mancha confirmed the death toll and said another 58 people needed medical treatment in hospital. Rescue workers continue to search in the wreckage for survivors and bodies.

The accident comes with memories still fresh of another crash between high-speed trains in southern Spain in January involving trains from the same two companies.

Spain’s rail system operator ADIF said the crash occurred on Wednesday morning in the province of Toledo, involving two high-speed trains carrying hundreds of passengers and heading in the same direction from the capital Madrid to Seville in south-western Spain.

One train, run by the state-owned RENFE company, ran into the rear of the other train owned by private company IRYO that had stopped, knocking two of its cars off the track in a rural area between two villages.

Spain’s transport minister, Oscar Puente, said that the accident was caused by what he called the “inexplicable” order from a central command centre for Spain’s trains after a security system had failed. He said the train engineers were not to blame.

Mr Puente said that at 8.30am the security system on a stretch of 39 miles stopped working due to a computer malfunction, causing all trains on that stretch to stop.

But the central command told the RENFE train to start running again without any speed restrictions, and it ended up colliding with the stopped IRYO train at 8.53am.

Mr Puente said that the train should never have been told to start moving again since there was still a “stop signal” active that line. And if it had, at least it should have been told to go at reduced speed.

The minister said they were still studying information to see how fast the train was going, but it could have been at 124mph for that stretch of the track.

“I am not attributing responsibility to anyone, I am just stating the facts,” Mr Puente said.

The crash, which occurred in a flat stretch surrounded by olive fields in between the towns of Urda and Los Yebenes, left one car torn into bits of metal and other material, scattering debris down a gravel slope.

Spanish health minister Monica García said that emergency workers were focusing on rescuing survivors and bodies from the two most damaged train cars. She said that the injured are being sent to different hospitals in the area.

“It was a high-speed impact, so we are expecting this to be a tragedy,” Ms Garcia said.

Passenger Ignacio Relano was traveling on the RENFE train. He told state broadcaster TVE that the train had stopped momentarily on the line before it started again and then crashed into the IRYO.

“We all felt the train abruptly slowing down and then the impact,” he said. “The car leaned to one side like it was about to tip over. I hit my nose, everything went flying, luggage, cell phones. Everything shook.”

Over recent decades, Spain has invested heavily in high-speed rail – which the country’s railway union defines as rails for trains going 250 kph (155 mph) and over – turning it into a world leader.

Spain has laid some 2,400 miles of such tracks over more than three decades for its 49 million residents. Only China, with 28,000 miles for its 1.4 billion people, has more high-speed track, according to the International Union of Railways.