Spanish investigators are examining control-room decisions before a collision that killed 69 people, while Transport Minister Óscar Puente’s account and train-radio audio detail the minutes before impact.
Puente said a computer communications failure at about 3:30 a.m. ET (07:30 UTC) Wednesday, Oct. 28, disabled the LZB train-control system across a 63-kilometer section of the Madrid-Seville high-speed line. The outage automatically stopped an estimated six trains. Adif, Spain’s rail infrastructure manager, then managed traffic manually.
At 3:36 a.m. ET (07:36 UTC), Adif’s Atocha control center authorized a Renfe AVE to resume “normal running.” Puente said a red signal and an occupied section ahead meant the train should not have been cleared.
Audio published by Cadena SER captures the Iryo driver contacting Atocha at 3:41 a.m. ET (07:41 UTC), after a transmission loss left her train stopped at Urda’s entry signal. Controllers told her to reconnect LZB and proceed using the signals beside the track. El País reported that at 3:48 a.m. ET (07:48 UTC), she said she still could not restart LZB and remained stopped.
Puente placed the impact at about 3:53 a.m. ET (07:53 UTC), roughly 17 minutes after clearance, with the AVE having traveled about 25 kilometers. He said it could have reached 200 km/h, but its speed at impact had not been established. The Castilla-La Mancha emergency service logged the incident at 3:54 a.m. ET (07:54 UTC).
Castilla-La Mancha President Emiliano García-Page said Thursday, Oct. 29, that 69 people had died and 50 remained hospitalized. He said 110 people had been admitted and 60 discharged.
elDiario.es, citing the regional High Court, reported that the judge in Orgaz closed a two-kilometer zone around the crash site, ordered the trains’ black boxes preserved and directed police to gather Atocha control-center traffic and protocol records. The proceedings are under seal. Investigators have not determined the cause or assigned responsibility.
