Two high speed trains on routes through southern Spain collided on Sunday evening, killing at least 42 and injuring more than 150, according to Spanish authorities. Recovery efforts are ongoing and it is reportedly likely that the death toll will climb.
For Spain, this has been the only rail accident on this scale since 2013, when a train derailed going too fast for a corner, killing 80.
A coincidental second crash occurred two days later in the Northeastern region of the country, calling into question the safety of the country’s rail network. A landslide caused a retaining wall lining the railway to collapse, which the train hit. The accident killed the driver-in-training running the train.
The cause of the Sunday crash remains unknown, however. The impact occurred when the red train, run by the private company Iryo, heading north from Malaga to Madrid, jumped the track and collided with another train going the other way, from Madrid to Huelva.
The second train, pictured in white and run by state rail organization Renfe, took the force of the impact, according to Transport Minister Óscar Puente. It ended up 2000 ft down the track from the collision, and its front two carriages were carried down a three meter tall embankment.
The collision occurred when the Renfe train collided with the derailed cars of the Iryo train.
Following the incident, the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declared a three day long period of mourning observed by the entire country. The Spanish king and queen visited the accident site Tuesday.
The Guardia Civil, one of Spain’s two major civil police forces, has been mounting recovery efforts and also opening DNA testing to family members who worry they have loved ones in the deceased.
As the investigation begins, authorities have started to look into the state of the track and if it may have caused the crash. Transport Minister Puente noted that the track, after being examined, had a break in the steel rail. However, he cautioned in a radio interview, “no technician is yet able to say whether it is a cause or a consequence. If the rail broke first, we would need to find out why a solid steel rail broke,” Puente said.
According to Alvaro Fernández, both trains were travelling well under their speed limit of 250 kph (155 mph). This suggests that the derailment was not the fault of human error, and more investigation must be pursued in order to understand the tragedy further.
The region has, according to many, reached a point of intense solidarity over the incident. Rafael Ángel Moreno, mayor of Adamuz and one of the first to arrive at the scene, spoke highly of his community and its response to the accident. Moreno noted that he felt a sense of “overwhelming solidarity” among those in his town of around 4,000, and that locals came together “from the very first moment” to provide a “helping hand” to the survivors.
