Spain, death toll in Urda rail disaster rises to 69

The death toll from the collision between two high-speed trains near Urda, in the province of Toledo, has risen to at least 69. An AVE train operated by national rail company Renfe rear-ended an Iryo train on the Madrid-Seville line. More than one hundred people were injured in the crash, fifty of whom were still hospitalised according to the latest available figures.

The Spanish government led by Pedro Sánchez has declared three days of national mourning. Among those not yet confirmed are two Italian citizens, one Italian-Venezuelan and one Italian-Argentine, who according to the Farnesina are still missing.

The first technical report by the Spanish rail accident investigation agency, AITAT, now offers initial elements on the dynamics of the impact. The AVE train is estimated to have struck the Iryo train at a speed of between 160 and 200 kilometres per hour. The Iryo train, according to the agency’s reconstruction, was stopped in front of entry signal E242 at Urda station when it was hit by the high-speed convoy.

On October 30th AITAT announced the recovery of the black box recorders from both trains, now in the custody of the Guardia Civil. The data contained in the devices should allow for a more precise reconstruction of the phases preceding the collision, including the actual speed of the two trains and whether onboard staff complied with signalling.

The identification of the victims also remains an open issue. As of October 30th, part of the remains recovered at the crash site had not yet been identified: an operation that, in rail disasters of this scale, takes considerable time given the number of people involved.

The collision involved two operators sharing the same high-speed infrastructure: Renfe, the Spanish national rail company, and Iryo, the private operator running on the same Madrid-Seville line. The reconstruction established so far — a train stopped in front of a station’s entry signal, struck by another train passing through — is now at the centre of the technical investigation opened by AITAT, which released these first findings two days after the accident.

The news of the updated toll and the speed estimate comes from two independent accounts: one by El País, based on AITAT’s technical note, and one by Cadena SER, which cross-references the same report with sources from the news agency EFE. Both converge on the speed range of 160 to 200 kilometres per hour and on the position of the Iryo train in front of signal E242.

The next stage of the investigation concerns the analysis of data extracted from the onboard recorders, which will need to establish precisely the actual speed of the two trains in the seconds before impact and whether signalling along the line was observed by staff on duty.