Overview
- Two high-speed trains collided near Urda in Toledo on Wednesday, leaving at least 68 people dead and many more injured as rescue teams continue search and recovery.
- Officials say a communications failure knocked out the LZB continuous train-protection system on a 63 km stretch, forcing Adif's control centre to coordinate trains manually.
- Transport Minister Óscar Puente told reporters that the central control centre inexplicably gave a Renfe train permission to proceed while an Iryo train remained stopped on the same section.
- A large emergency response was deployed, including helicopters, mobile intensive-care units and Spain's military emergency unit (UME), and Adif has suspended Madrid–Andalusia services in both directions.
- Formal investigations are under way into the technical outage, the control-centre actions and operational procedures, and the crash revives wider safety and political scrutiny after a January collision on the same network.