High-speed train collision in Toledo kills 68, including former minister Fátima Báñez
A rear-end crash between a Renfe AVE train and an Italian Iryo train on the Madrid-Seville line in Toledo province left 68 dead and 80 injured, investigators citing human error after a signalling failure.
A rear-end collision between two high-speed trains on the Madrid-Seville route in Toledo province killed 68 people and injured 80, five of them critically, regional authorities said. The accident occurred around 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday when a Renfe AVE train, carrying 147 passengers, struck the back of an Italian-operated Iryo train, which had 397 passengers on board.
Emiliano García-Page, president of the Castilla-La Mancha regional government, confirmed the death toll and said former employment minister Fátima Báñez, 59, was among those killed. Two carriages of the Iryo train derailed and fell down an embankment between Los Yébenes and Urda.
Transport minister Óscar Puente said the crash was caused by an "inexplicable" human error after a railway traffic controller instructed the AVE driver to proceed despite a red signal and a digital signalling system failure that had halted trains on a 39-mile stretch south of Madrid. The operator at Atocha station told the driver at 8:36 a.m. that he could "proceed normally despite there being a red signal still in place," leading to the collision.
"People were thrown from the train. We thought we had derailed," said passenger Jesús Jerónimo, 54, who was travelling on the AVE train. He described the scene as chaotic, with injured passengers and smoke from a carriage that had tipped over.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, whose election campaign was underway, visited the site later in the day and posted on X that he was in constant contact with the transport minister and the regional president, expressing solidarity with victims and families.
Local officials, including the mayor of Urda, coordinated emergency response, converting a sports hall into a treatment area for the injured. The foreign office of the United Kingdom said it was ready to provide consular assistance to any British nationals involved.
The incident follows a January crash near Adamuz that killed 46 people, marking the first major collision on Spain’s high-speed network in recent months.