Leaked Audio Points to Controllers as Spain Crash Toll Reaches 69
The death toll from Wednesday’s high-speed collision near Urda, south of Madrid, has risen to 69. Leaked recordings published in Spanish media appear to show Madrid’s control centre clearing a Renfe train to move while an Iryo train had stalled about 25km ahead. Pedro Sánchez said the authorities would “get to the bottom of every last detail of this tragedy”.
In one recording, a controller tells the driver to continue “at normal speed with normal operation” and replies “Yes” when the driver asks for confirmation. The automatic train protection system had been out of action since a computer failure. Transport Minister Óscar Puente has called the clearance “inexplicable”, but unions accuse him of blaming a single controller. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visited injured passengers in a Toledo hospital on Thursday. Survivors described trapped passengers, smoke and one carriage on fire. This is Spain’s second deadly high-speed crash this year, and with a general election next month the question of accountability will not go away.