Spain mourns as Urda train crash death toll rises to 74

Spain began three days of national mourning on Thursday, October 29. Rescuers spent the day searching the wreckage of a high-speed train collision near Urda in Toledo province, and families waited for news of the missing. Regional leader Emiliano García-Page put the death toll at 69, Reuters reported. Updated figures on the transport ministry's website later showed 74 dead, according to France 24 and AFP. It is Spain's second deadly high-speed rail crash this year, and it comes a month before a November 29 snap election.rmb.reuters.com+1

An 'inexplicable' order

The crash happened at about 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, October 28, on the Madrid-Seville line. A Renfe train hit the back of an Iryo train that had stopped on the track ahead, ABC News reported. Both trains were heading south from Madrid and together carried more than 540 passengers. Transport Minister Óscar Puente said a computer failure had stopped six trains. The control centre then let traffic restart without speed limits, and Puente called that decision "inexplicable". He said the Renfe train travelled 25 kilometres before the impact, and that the control centre "had more than enough time to verify the error, and they did not fix it".abcnews.com+1

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the site and promised to "get to the bottom of every last detail of this tragedy". A judge in Toledo has closed the line to everyone except emergency, security, health and judicial staff for 2 kilometres in each direction from the site.rmb.reuters.com

Grief and a strained recovery

Among the dead was Fátima Báñez, a former labour minister. Fifty-seven injured people were still in hospital on Thursday. More than 800 military and police personnel took part in the rescue. Toledo's morgue can hold 30 bodies but has received 52, so the army set up a temporary facility. People across the country held a minute of silence, including at Madrid's Atocha station.france24.com+1

Blame and politics

In January, trains run by the same two operators collided on the same line near Adamuz, killing 46 people. Renfe drivers went ahead with a strike on Thursday that was called before the crash. Diego Martín, head of the drivers' union SEMAF, said "attention is wrongly being focused on searching for culprits" when staff are working with "degraded systems". Unions say the government dropped safety talks in April.abcnews.com+2

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the opposition People's Party, accused Puente of "frivolity" for trying to blame one control-centre operator. The two main party leaders have suspended campaign events. Puente defended the network as "reliable and safe," within "the limits of the material itself and of human action".france24.com+1