Second deadly train crash of the year ahead of national election

Cranes lift wrecked train carriages as rescuers search for victims following a collision between two trains in Urda, Thursday [AP Photo]

Spain’s second high-speed rail disaster this year, in which one train struck another from behind, killing 69 people, has raised fresh concerns about the safety of the country’s rail network ahead of a national election.

Search teams with sniffer dogs continued to look for victims on Thursday morning, a day after the collision in central Spain. Cranes helped shift the carriages as police and soldiers helped pick through the wreckage strewn down the gravel slope where at least three train carriages were tossed by the impact.

One more body was found overnight, taking the death toll to 69, according to the regional leader of Castilla La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page.

“Yesterday we experienced a catastrophe that without a doubt has left all of Spain in shock,” García-Page said.

García-Page said that a crane would lift a damaged carriage that had flipped over. He added that 50 people remained hospitalized. “Besides bodies, there are body parts that need to be identified,” García-Page said.

Spain’s government declared three days of mourning starting Thursday.

Spain’s high-speed rail network has been considered one of the nation’s crowning achievements. It is the world’s second-largest, after China’s. Until this year, it had not endured a deadly crash since coming into service over three decades ago.

The collision Wednesday morning that turned a sleepy stretch of rail lined by olive groves into a scene of carnage came just four weeks before the country votes in a national election.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the crash site in the province of Toledo on Wednesday after regional authorities confirmed that more than 60 people had died and dozens more were being treated at hospitals.

In January, 46 people had died when one train jumped the track and slammed into the side of another going the opposite way in southern Spain.

Sánchez pledged an investigation into the latest collision and improvements to prevent another tragedy like the two that have shaken trust in a rail system that carried 45 million travelers last year, including millions of tourists.

“It is clear that we need to reinforce the safety of our train service to rebuild the trust in our high-speed rail,” Sánchez said. “It is not acceptable for a country like Spain to endure two high-speed train accidents in the same year.”

Both deadly crashes this year took place on the same rail line. Each involved a train operated by state-owned RENFE and another operated by privately owned IRYO. Spain liberalized its high-speed rail service in 2021, with the Italian IRYO starting service the following year.

Sánchez has weathered many crises since taking power in 2018, staying in office and winning reelection after the COVID-19 pandemic and the global rise in inflation.

But polls show he faces another uphill battle when voters cast ballots in Spain’s first national election since 2023. The new rail disaster can’t help the prospects of his Socialist party.

Sánchez and other progressive parties had hoped to leverage a wave of discontent over housing costs and high rents when he called for early elections earlier this month.

About an hour before news of Wednesday’s crash spread, Sánchez had posted on X a message that “There are lots of reasons to be optimistic about this country.”

He now faces questions about the safety of Spain’s rail service along with criticism from right-wing parties of his liberal migration policies and accusations of corruption against his party and his wife, which both he and his wife deny.

His transport minister, Óscar Puente, faced media questions over whether he would resign following a second major train wreck under his watch. He said he was fully focused on dealing with the collision, not his future.

Sánchez’s main rival, Popular Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, demanded a full investigation of the crash on Wednesday. The conservative leader said that in respect for the victims his party canceled its campaign events for the day.

“This is the moment to respect the dead, the injured and their families,” Núñez Feijóo said. “That does not mean we will ignore the fact that Spaniards are asking tough questions that demand answers.”

The far-right Vox leader, Santiago Abascal, who is likely hoping to enter a coalition government with the conservatives, did not show the same restraint.

“More dead. Another tragedy. More rage over being left to fend for ourselves, the despair and the betrayal that Spaniards are enduring,” Abascal said just hours after the crash.

“I promise to work tirelessly until this government, which is a criminal organization, is sitting in a courtroom to answer for its crimes,” he said.

Puente said that the crash was caused by what he called the “inexplicable” order from a central command center for Spain’s trains after a security system had failed. He said the train engineers were not to blame. JOSEPH WILSON & IAIN SULLIVAN, URDA, Spain, MDT/AP