Royals visit deadly train crash site as Spain mourns

ADAMUZ, Spain (AFP) — Spain’s king and queen visited Tuesday the site of the collision of two high-speed trains that killed at least 42 people, as the country began three days of national mourning.

The country’s deadliest rail accident in more than a decade took place late Sunday when a train operated by rail company Iryo, travelling from Malaga to Madrid, derailed near Adamuz in the southern Andalusia region.

It crossed onto the other track, where it crashed into an oncoming train heading to Huelva, which also derailed.

The official death toll rose to 42 by late Tuesday after another body was found in the wreckage, the regional government said.

More than 120 people were injured, with 37 still in hospital, including four children, it added.

Dressed in dark clothing, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia shook hands with emergency services workers near the spot where the mangled wreckage of the two trains remains.

They then visited a hospital in the nearby city of Cordoba where some of the injured are being treated.

Speaking to reporters after leaving the hospital, the king said he wanted to “convey the affection of the entire country” to the victims.

Santiago Salvador, a Portuguese national who broke a leg in the accident, said he felt lucky to be alive.

“I was thrown through the carriage, it felt like being on a carousel,” Salvador, his face covered in cuts, told Portuguese state television RTP. “It was a very tragic accident; it looked like hell. There were people who were very seriously injured.”

The two trains were carrying more than 500 passengers.

Crack on tracks

It was Spain’s deadliest train accident since 2013, when 80 people died after a train veered off a curved section of track outside the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela.

Flags flew at half-mast on public buildings, television anchors wore black, and cabinet ministers curtailed public appearances as Spain observed the first of three days of national mourning.

The government has vowed a full and transparent investigation into the cause of the accident.

Unlike the 2013 disaster, the derailment occurred on a straight section of track, and the trains were travelling within the speed limit, officials said.

Spanish media report that the probe is focusing on a crack more than 12 inches long in the track at the site of the accident.

The crack may have resulted from “a poor weld or a weld that deteriorated due to train traffic or weather,” daily newspaper El Mundo reported, citing unidentified technicians with access to the inquiry.

Transport Minister Oscar Puente said investigators were looking to see if a broken section of rail was “the cause or the result” of the derailment.

He said the Iryo train was “practically new” and the section of track where the disaster happened had been recently renovated, making the accident “extremely strange.”

Sabotage ruled out

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said “the possibility of sabotage was never considered.”

“There has never been any element suggesting otherwise,” he added.

The head of state rail operator Renfe, Alvaro Fernandez Heredia, said human error has “been practically ruled out” and both trains were traveling well under the speed limit of 155 miles per hour.

Spanish rail operator Adif on Tuesday imposed a temporary 100 mph speed limit on parts of the high-speed line between Madrid and Barcelona after train drivers reported bumps.

Maintenance crews will inspect the tracks overnight, and the restriction is expected to be lifted if no issues are found. the company added.

Opened in 1992, Spain’s high-speed rail network is the second-largest in the world, after China’s.

Private operators began running passenger trains in 2021 following the liberalization of the rail sector, ending Renfe’s decades-long monopoly.

Since then, passenger numbers on some routes have grown noticeably.

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By IMRAN MARASHLI with DANIEL SILVA in Madrid Agence France-Presse