On the morning of October 28 local time, a serious railway accident occurred in Toledo province in central Spain, where two high-speed trains collided. The government of Castile-La Mancha region, where Toledo is located, reported that at least 68 people were killed in the accident, and the number of casualties is expected to increase.
Currently, the investigation into the cause of the accident focuses on “human error in scheduling”. At a press conference in Madrid, Spain on Wednesday, Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Pujol described the accident as “truly unbelievable”.
He revealed that preliminary investigations indicate that the accident was caused by an 'inexplicable' order given by a railway dispatcher. At a time when already one train was stopped on the track due to a safety malfunction, this dispatcher still allowed another train to proceed.
According to Pueyo, before the accident, a communication failure occurred in three computers, resulting in a malfunction of an automatic safety system at the Toledos Urda station. The 63-kilometer railway section lost its safety protection, and six trains within the section were forced to stop due to automatic braking, including two of the trains involved in the incident.
Subsequently, the control center under the Spanish Railway Infrastructure Administration (ADIF) took over command and began manually managing the operations on the relevant sections of the railway line.
However, at around 8:36 am on that day, the control center issued an order allowing the Spanish National Railway Company (Renfe) train, which had already stopped, to resume normal operation. After traveling about 25 kilometers, the train collided with the Iryo train that was parked on the track at 8:53.
Punto said at the press conference: "There were red lights indicating no passage, but the train was allowed to pass. This is a puzzling decision."
The newly exposed three-way call recordings confirm that the dispatcher gave instructions to the Renfe train, asking it to “disconnect, reconnect, and resume normal speed operation”.
This instruction directly violates safety regulations. According to the requirements, in areas where the system fails, trains should travel by visual means or at a speed limit of 40 kilometers per hour. Additionally, dispatchers allow the train behind to proceed at full speed without confirming that the preceding train has safely left the area.
Punte also said that the Iryo train, which was rear-ended, was believed to have received a command from the dispatcher to "continue its journey", but did not move forward for unknown reasons.
According to American media ABC, this collision is the second major accident on the same high-speed rail line in Spain this year. Both accidents involve the same railway operators and the same trains. In January this year, two high-speed trains belonging to Iryo and Renfe collided near Adámus in Córdoba province, resulting in 46 deaths. Spanish officials said that one train derailed, and the other train hit the derailed vehicle.
Castilla y León Autonomous Region President Emiliaño García-Pach said on the 28th: "The Ministry of Transport is working to find out the cause of this terrible tragedy, and to understand how and why it happened. We will investigate thoroughly. If there was any negligence, it will eventually be uncovered; if there were any failures in the safety systems, we will resolve them decisively."
“Within a year, we have experienced two terrible high-speed rail tragedies. It seems that the causes of both accidents are unrelated, but this is not something I can assert with certainty. That’s the responsibility of the independent railway accident investigation committee.”
He added, “If we need to strengthen safety measures further to restore people’s confidence in our country’s high-speed rail system, we will do so. This is unacceptable for a country like Spain to have two high-speed rail accidents in the same year.”
