Spain reckons with second deadly train crash of the year ahead of national election

Spain's second high-speed rail disaster this year, in which one train struck another from behind, killing 68 people, has raised fresh concerns about the safety of the country's rail network.

Search teams with sniffer dogs continued to look for victims on Thursday morning, a day after the collision in central Spain. Cranes were in place to help 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.

The spokesperson for the Castilla La Mancha region, Esther Padilla, said that 53 people remained hospitalized with 15 in critical care at different hospitals on Thursday. Padilla said the death toll remained at 68, but was still provisional.

“Emergency workers and the military emergency brigade are still working with much care because we still can’t be sure that there aren’t more victims,” Padilla told national broadcaster TVE.

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

Crash comes as Spain is preparing for an election

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.

Political implications for Sánchez ahead of election

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.

Human error was behind the crash

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.

Puente said that at 8:30 a.m. the security system on a stretch of 63 kilometers (39 miles) stopped working due to a computer malfunction, causing all trains on that stretch to stop. At that point the IRYO train was stopped near the town of Urda, while the RENFE train was 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) behind it.

But a few minutes later the central command told the RENFE train to start running again without any speed restrictions, and it ended up colliding with the stationary IRYO train at 8:53 a.m.

Puente said that the train should never have been told to start moving again since there was still a “stop signal” active on that line. And if it had, at least it should have been told to go at reduced speed.

Thousands of travelers were left stranded and searching for alternative transport after the high-speed line connecting Madrid and Seville was shut down. RENFE, which operates the most trains, is not selling tickets online for this service until mid-December.

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Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. Associated Press writer Teresa Medrano in Madrid contributed to this report.