Spain Train Crash Kills 69 After Safety System Failure

A collision between two trains in Toledo province killed 69 people on Wednesday, October 29.

The sequence began at 8:31 a.m. when the LZB system, a three-decade-old network that monitors train positions and applies brakes automatically, went offline on the Madrid-Seville line. Because the backup system also failed to cover the area between two analogue sensors, controllers at a Madrid post monitored a 63-kilometer (39-mile) stretch. At 8:36 a controller cleared a state-owned RENFE train to resume normal speed while a private IRYO train remained stationary 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) down the line. The IRYO operator reported an inability to restart, but the RENFE train was not ordered to stop. The trains collided at 8:53. Independent investigators said the RENFE train was moving at 160 to 200 kph (100 to 125 mph) at impact.

Transport Minister Óscar Puente called the decision to release one train while the other stood still 'inexplicable' and 'erroneous'. Puente, who is facing calls to resign, told reporters that 'the information points to a mistake in the control center' and said he would not 'use a worker as a shield'. The minister also said the ministry raised the number of traffic controllers from 1,000 in 2016 to 1,700 now.

Unions rejected the focus on the individual operator. Raquel Ayllón, spokesperson for the SCF controllers union, said the workload regularly exceeds what current staff can safely handle. 'We believe (the minister) is blaming a mere worker who was working under increasingly poor conditions,' Ayllón said. 'Human error isn't incomprehensible. What is incomprehensible is that the safety system is regularly failing.' Joan Rodríguez of Spain's train workers' union said the liberalization of high-speed rail service was not matched by the necessary upkeep of the lines. Diego Martín, spokesperson for the SEMAF engineers union, said the LZB system should have been replaced some time ago. Puente said the system went offline 170 times this year, which he called normal for recent averages.

The crash marked the second deadly incident on the Madrid-Seville line this year. A January collision, over two hours farther south, killed 46 people and remains under investigation. Spain's high-speed network is the world's second largest after China and had not recorded a fatal crash since entering service more than 30 years ago. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Friday from the crash site near Urda that it is unacceptable for Spain to have two accidents of this type in one year.

Search crews with sniffer dogs continued working through the wreckage on Friday, and regional authorities did not rule out a higher death toll. Investigators from the rail accident committee removed the trains' black boxes late Thursday and provided them to the Civil Guard. A judge is also investigating the crash. Seventy families filed missing persons reports for unaccounted passengers, five bodies had been identified, and 39 of the more than 200 injured people remained hospitalized on Friday.

Spain recorded 49 million train travelers in 2024, up from 35 million in 2019, according to the Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission. Both of this year's crashes involved a RENFE train and an IRYO train.