Overview
- A collision between two high-speed trains near Ulda in Toledo on Wednesday killed 68 people and left more than 100 injured after carriages derailed and fell down an embankment.
- A computer signalling fault forced automatic stops across about 63 kilometres of the Madrid–Seville corridor before the Madrid operations centre switched to manual control and authorised some trains to restart.
- Media and official accounts say the control centre told a Renfe driver to resume at 'normal speed' despite rules requiring a 40 km/h limit after automatic stops, a move Transport Minister Raquel Sánchez Puente called inexplicable.
- Spanish investigators have seized the trains' onboard recorders and opened a formal probe into control-centre decisions while Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declared three days of mourning and pledged measures to restore public confidence.
- About 540 people were aboard the two trains, foreign governments are checking passenger lists after two Japanese names were reported, and the crash raises fresh questions about safety oversight after a separate high-speed rail disaster in January.