Spain train crash: Death toll rises

At least 30 people are dead after a high-speed train crashed into the rear of a stopped train in Toledo in central Spain.

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Two cars derailed in the crash, which was the country’s second major crash this year, The Associated Press reported. The two trains, both high-speed, were traveling in the same direction from Madrid to Seville.

68 killed, dozens injured

Update 2:35 p.m. ET, Oct. 28: The death toll increased slightly to 68 people killed, with an additional 58 people treated at area hospitals for injuries, the AP reported.

The Spanish government has declared three days of national mourning.

Prime minister Pedro Sánchez said at the site, “Today all of Spain is grieving.” He also called for more safety measures concerning high-speed rail.

“It is unacceptable for a country like Spain to suffer two high-speed rail accidents in the same year,” he said.

Suspected cause

Update 11:06 a.m. ET, Oct. 28: The country’s Transport Minister said the accident was caused by an “inexplicable” order from Spain’s train central command center after a failure in a security system.

Óscar Puente said that the train engineers were not to blame, the AP reported.

Puente said the security system on 39 miles of the line stopped working because of a computer malfunction.

Despite the issue, central command told the Renfe train to run without speed restrictions. The Iryo train in front of it was not running, so the Renfe train smashed into it.

Puente said the Renfe train should not have been told to move because there was a “stop signal” on the line, or at least told to move more slowly.

Officials are trying to determine how fast the train was going at the time, the AP reported.

Death toll rises

Update 9:11 a.m. ET, Oct. 28: The death toll has risen to at least 64 people, the AP reported. The region’s central government office confirmed the latest death toll. The regional president had earlier said that 30 people had died and at least 80 people were hurt.

CNN reported that the numbers were expected to continue to rise.

Original report: One train was owned by Renfe, a state-owned company; the other was owned by Iryo, a private rail company. Both companies had been involved in a deadly crash in January. In that incident, 45 people died, making it the deadliest crash in Spain since 80 were killed in a crash in 2013.

The AP reported that the Renfe hit the Iryo train. The Iryo train was either stopped or moving at a low speed, CNN reported.

The RENFE train had 397 passengers, and the Iryo train had 147.

Spokesperson for the Castilla La Mancha region, Esther Padilla, initially said there were 10 deaths in Wednesday’s crash but said, “that number would surely rise.”

One woman who was on one of the trains called it “awful,” saying that people were thrown in the air, CNN reported.

The woman, identified only as Patricia, said she was in the third car in the Renfe train. She said her train had been stopped for about 20 minutes before the crash because there was a lot of traffic.

“After that we departed, and maybe not after even three minutes, there was a crash,” she said, according to CNN.

“Some people were hurled into the air. Not me. I was on the left side so I suppose that’s why I wasn’t hurled in the air, but it was awful.”She added, “Some of the train structure got into our train, in our carriage, and our carriage wasn’t even the worst.”

Rail service between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia was halted due to the crash.

A shelter was opened in Urda, Toledo, with the Red Cross providing food and helping the injured, CNN reported.

People of several nationalities were on the train. Staff from the US Embassy in Spain have arrived on site.