What caused the deadly train crash in Spain? What we know so far

Scores of people were killed after two trains collided in Spain on Wednesday, in a crash that authorities say was caused by both computer system failure and apparent human error.

At least 68 people were killed and more than 100 injured after one train rear-ended another train near the town of Urda, in Toledo province, on the high-speed line that connects Madrid and Seville.

One of the trains, operated by Spain’s national rail company Renfe, plowed into a stationary train operated by the private company Iryo, at a time when all train traffic in the area was disrupted due to a problem with the LZB train management safety system.

It marks the third deadly rail incident in Spain this year, following a major crash in January in Córdoba province in which more than 40 people died, and a crash near Barcelona that killed a train driver.

“Today, Spain is in mourning. All of Spain is in mourning,” said Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez from the scene of the crash on Wednesday, as he expressed his “full solidarity” with victims’ families.

Spain’s transportation minister Óscar Puente said that a computer system failure led to an issue with the safety system along a 63-kilometer (40-mile) stretch of track causing all trains in the area to be stopped automatically.

At that point, the state-owned company that manages Spain’s railways, ADIF, took manual command of the system and a decision was made to allow the high-speed Renfe train to continue southbound along the tracks despite a red light.

The Renfe train was authorized to proceed without any speed restrictions due to an erroneous order from a train controller. As a result, Puente said that between 8:36 a.m. and 8:52 a.m. local time, it resumed traveling at about 124 miles per hour, eventually colliding with the stationary Iryo train.

“There was a red signal prohibiting movement, yet the train was authorized to proceed,” the transportation minister said at a press conference on Wednesday. “It is a decision made under inexplicable circumstances.”

Among those who were killed, 24 were on the Renfe train, traveling from Madrid to Seville, and 44 were on the Iryo train, also going between Madrid and Seville.

Puente added that there will be a full investigation into the incident.

Sánchez said that “if there has been negligence, it will come to light. And if there have been failures in the safety system, they will be addressed with the utmost firmness.”

Ppassengers told CNN that the moment of the crash on Wednesday was “very chaotic,” and people were immediately thrown out of their seats and on top of one another inside the carriages.

One surviving passenger said that three of the train cars in particular “were in terrible shape.”

“One was on fire, in another there were people trapped and crying,” said the passenger, who declined to give her name. “And then in the main one (impacted) – there were people buried under debris.”

Another passenger, Yoander, 25, said, “I was sleeping, and when I woke up I was already crashing into the seats in front of me.”

Spanish military emergency unit (UME)

“I hit my face and my leg,” he told CNN’s producer on the ground. “I’m in pain, but there are people that need more help than I do.”

A woman who was traveling on the Renfe high-speed train also described “awful” scenes as people were thrown into the air.

Speaking to CNN, Patricia said her train had been stopped for about 20 minutes before the accident, with an announcement explaining there was a lot of traffic. “After that, we departed, and maybe not after even three minutes, there was a crash,” she said.

“Some people were hurled into the air… it was awful,” she said. “Some of the train structure got into our carriage, and our carriage wasn’t even the worst (affected).”

There were 151 passengers on the Iryo train and 393 passengers on the Renfe train, according to the latest update from the regional government of Castilla and La Mancha.

Dozens of fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars rushed to the site of the crash in the immediate aftermath. The Spanish civil guard set up multiple tents for what amounted to a huge emergency response, according to CNN’s team on the ground. At least three helicopters were also at the site to assist with rescue operations.

Emergency responders have been combing through the rubble of some of the heavily damaged carriages of the Iryo train. Several carriages of the state-owned Renfe high-speed train were tilted on their side after coming off the rails.

Authorities moved passengers who did not have serious injuries away from the site via busses. Several passengers being bussed away had minor injuries, including cuts on their faces and around their eyes, and what appeared to be bloody noses.

The evacuated passengers included citizens of multiple nationalities, including Spain, Brazil and elsewhere, according to CNN’s producer at the scene. The US State Department has said “several” Americans were injured in the train collision.

The town of Urda, roughly five miles from the crash site, has received dozens of ambulances and emergency service vehicles, according to a second CNN team in the area. Red Cross workers operating out of the town’s sports center are treating the injured.

The Spanish Civil Guard announced that they have opened four offices in different Spanish cities to swiftly identify the victims of the crash.

Meanwhile, the regional government has urgently called for blood donations following the train crash, urging citizens to donate blood at sites in the cities of Alcázar de San Juan, Ciudad Real and Toledo.

Prime Minister Sánchez said on Wednesday that “it’s clear that we have suffered two terrible tragedies involving high-speed rail in the same year,” acknowledging the other major crash in Córdoba province that killed more than 40 people in January.

The crash on Wednesday happened about 130 miles from the site of the January train disaster near the town of Adamuz, along the same high-speed rail route that runs between Madrid and Seville.

However, the cause of the train crash earlier this year was markedly different. That collision involved one train derailing due to a break in the track and crossing onto an adjacent track, according to Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE.

Violeta Santos Moura/Reuters

Prior to the Adamuz train disaster, Spain’s train drivers’ union, Semaf, had raised concerns about high speeds causing vibrations and subsequent wear and tear along high-speed railway lines, a source from the union told CNN at the time.

A third crash this year near Barcelona – which happened days after the Adamuz train disaster – involved a commuter train derailing on a day of heavy rainfall. That crash killed the driver and injuring dozens of passengers, according to the regional government of Catalonia at the time.

The successive incidents have raised concerns about Spain’s railway infrastructure, computer systems and the maintenance of both.

But prior to this year, European Union statistics show that Spain’s rail safety record was better than many other European countries.

In 2023, Spain had fewer than 1 railway deaths per one million inhabitants – giving it the best record in the EU at the time, according to a Eurostat report. Most railway deaths in the EU are a result of unauthorized people on the tracks, rather than incidents that kill passengers or staff inside the train, data shows.

CNN’s Catherine Nicholls, Michael Rios and Jack Guy contributed to this report.

周三，西班牙两列火车相撞，造成数十人死亡。当局称，事故是由计算机系统故障和明显的人为失误造成的。

在连接马德里和塞维利亚的高速铁路线托莱多省乌尔达镇附近，一列火车追尾另一列火车，造成至少 68 人死亡，100 多人受伤。

当时，由于 LZB 列车管理安全系统出现问题，该地区所有列车交通中断，其中一列由西班牙国家铁路公司 Renfe 运营的列车撞上了由私营公司 Iryo 运营的停靠列车。

这是西班牙今年发生的第三起致命铁路事故。此前，1 月份科尔多瓦省发生了一起重大事故，造成 40 多人死亡；巴塞罗那附近也发生了一起事故，导致一名火车司机丧生。

“今天，西班牙举国哀悼。整个西班牙都沉浸在哀悼之中。”首相佩德罗·桑切斯周三在坠机现场表示，并向遇难者家属表达了“完全的声援”。

西班牙交通部长奥斯卡·普恩特表示，计算机系统故障导致一段 63 公里（40 英里）长的铁轨上的安全系统出现问题，导致该地区所有列车自动停止运行。

当时，管理西班牙铁路的国有企业 ADIF 接管了系统的人工控制权，并决定允许 Renfe 高速列车在红灯亮起的情况下继续沿铁轨向南行驶。

由于列车调度员的错误指令，Renfe列车被允许不受任何速度限制地行驶。普恩特表示，结果，在当地时间上午8点36分至8点52分之间，该列车恢复以约124英里/小时的速度行驶，最终与停靠的Iryo列车相撞。

交通部长周三在新闻发布会上表示：“当时有禁止通行的红灯，但列车却被允许通行。这是一个在无法解释的情况下做出的决定。”

在遇难者中，24 人乘坐 Renfe 列车从马德里开往塞维利亚，44 人乘坐 Iryo 列车，也是从马德里开往塞维利亚。

普恩特补充说，将对这起事件进行全面调查。

桑切斯表示，“如果存在疏忽，真相终将水落石出。如果安全系统存在缺陷，必将得到最严厉的处置。”

乘客告诉 CNN，周三的撞车事故发生时“非常混乱”，人们立即被甩出座位，在车厢内叠在一起。

一名幸存的乘客表示，其中三节车厢“状况非常糟糕”。

“其中一辆车着火了，另一辆车里有人被困，正在哭泣，”这位不愿透露姓名的乘客说。“而主要的那辆车（受损的那辆）里，有人被埋在废墟下。”

另一名乘客，25岁的约安德说：“我当时正在睡觉，醒来时发现自己已经撞到了前面的座位上。”

西班牙军事应急部队（UME）

“我的脸和腿都撞到了，”他告诉现场的CNN制片人。“我很疼，但还有人比我更需要帮助。”

一位乘坐 Renfe 高速列车的女士也描述了“可怕的”场景，人们被抛向空中。

帕特里夏在接受CNN采访时表示，事故发生前，她的列车停了大约20分钟，广播解释说列车上交通拥堵。“之后我们重新出发，可能不到三分钟，就发生了撞车事故。”她说。

“有些人被抛到空中……太可怕了，”她说。“一些列车结构碎片飞进了我们的车厢，而我们的车厢甚至还不是受损最严重的。”

根据卡斯蒂利亚-拉曼查地区政府的最新消息，Iryo列车上有151名乘客，Renfe列车上有393名乘客。

事故发生后，数十辆消防车、救护车和警车立即赶往现场。据CNN现场报道，西班牙国民警卫队搭建了多个帐篷，展开了大规模的紧急救援行动。至少三架直升机也抵达现场协助救援。

救援人员正在清理伊陵号列车部分严重损毁车厢的废墟。这列国营Renfe高速列车的多节车厢脱轨后侧翻。

当局用巴士将伤势较轻的乘客转移离现场。一些被巴士送走的乘客受了轻伤，包括面部和眼周的割伤，以及疑似流鼻血的症状。

据CNN现场记者报道，被疏散的乘客包括来自西班牙、巴西等多个国家的公民。美国国务院表示，有“多名”美国公民在火车相撞事故中受伤。

据CNN在当地的另一支报道团队称，距离坠机地点约五英里的乌尔达镇已接收了数十辆救护车和紧急救援车辆。红十字会工作人员正在该镇的体育中心救治伤员。

西班牙国民警卫队宣布，他们已在西班牙不同城市开设四个办事处，以便迅速确认坠机事故遇难者的身份。

与此同时，火车事故发生后，地区政府紧急呼吁民众献血，敦促市民前往阿尔卡萨尔德圣胡安、雷阿尔城和托莱多等城市的献血点献血。

桑切斯总理周三表示，“很明显，我们在同一年遭受了两起与高铁有关的可怕悲剧”，他承认1月份在科尔多瓦省发生的另一起重大事故造成40多人死亡。

周三发生的这起事故地点距离 1 月份在阿达穆斯镇附近发生的火车事故地点约 130 英里，位于马德里和塞维利亚之间的同一条高速铁路线上。

然而，今年早些时候发生的火车事故原因却截然不同。据西班牙公共广播公司RTVE报道，那次事故是由于一列火车因轨道断裂而脱轨，并驶入相邻轨道造成的。

Violeta Santos Moura/路透社

据当时CNN报道，在阿达穆斯号列车灾难发生之前，西班牙火车司机工会Semaf曾对高速列车行驶导致高速铁路线路振动和随后的磨损表示担忧。

今年巴塞罗那附近发生的第三起事故——发生在阿达穆兹火车事故几天后——是一列通勤列车在暴雨当天脱轨。据当时加泰罗尼亚自治区政府称，这起事故造成司机死亡，数十名乘客受伤。

这一系列事件引发了人们对西班牙铁路基础设施、计算机系统及其维护的担忧。

但在此之前，欧盟统计数据显示，西班牙的铁路安全记录优于许多其他欧洲国家。

根据欧盟统计局的报告，2023年西班牙每百万居民的铁路死亡人数不足1人，是当时欧盟成员国中铁路死亡人数最少的国家。数据显示，欧盟大多数铁路死亡事故是由于未经授权的人员进入铁轨造成的，而非列车内乘客或工作人员的死亡事故。

CNN的凯瑟琳·尼科尔斯、迈克尔·里奥斯和杰克·盖伊对本报道亦有贡献。