In Spain, another rail disaster hits Sánchez. Videos and photos

A very serious rail accident occurred in Spain this morning, at around nine o’clock, near Toledo. A high-speed train operated by Renfe, the state-owned transport company, collided with a train operated by the private company Iryo. According to initial reports, the first train rear-ended the second, which was travelling ahead of it, causing two of the Iryo carriages to derail and plunge down an embankment near Urda station (Toledo). At present, according to the most ‘optimistic’ estimate – that of Esther Padilla Ruiz, spokesperson for the regional government of Castile-La Mancha – there are ten fatalities and several injured, but the death toll looks set to rise, and some media outlets are already reporting several dozen fatalities. Official government sources are already reporting at least 30 deaths. It is known that 544 passengers were travelling on the two trains involved.

Even according to the government’s own sources, the disaster “could be more serious than Adamuz”. The obvious reference is to the accident that took place in the province of Córdoba, in the town of Adamuz, where in January another extremely serious derailment caused a collision between high-speed trains, leaving 46 people dead.

This second fatal tragedy has occurred on the same railway line, which connects Madrid with Andalusia. According to initial technical reports, the accident in January was caused by a broken track. As for this latest disaster, it is certainly still too early to say precisely what happened, but the first theories are already circulating. The one reported just now by El País suggests that an incorrect command was sent to the Renfe train, causing it to collide with the other train, which was stationary on the tracks.

Meanwhile, the emergency response system has been activated. In Urda, a municipal hall has been made available to assist the victims, and the Autonomous Community of Madrid has announced that it is sending eight teams from the regional fire service. Several train services and routes have been suspended, particularly between Madrid and Andalusia – the route that is now, tragically, back in the headlines on all national and international websites and front pages. There is widespread disruption at stations across half of Spain.

Much of the political world has suspended the schedule of various pre-election events planned for today (it should be noted that the incumbent government has resigned and the Spanish people are due to vote on 29 November). Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has cancelled all his engagements scheduled for this Wednesday, as have other leaders. The only significant exception is the far-right party Vox, whose leader Santiago Abascal has confirmed the pre-campaign events scheduled for today in Santander and Valladolid. “Vox will continue to denounce the brazenness of the PSOE’s ‘campaign of love’, which is causing casualties in Spain,” reads a statement.

And in fact, the only thing that is certain at this moment is that the rail disaster will also overshadow the election campaign. No one had resigned since the Adamuz incident, certainly not Minister Óscar Puente, one of the best-known figures in Sánchez’s government and undoubtedly the most active on social media, where he never misses an opportunity to engage in controversies – sometimes using rather crude language – with this or that opponent, be they a politician or a columnist.

A frequent presence on traditional television channels as well, Puente had appeared a week ago on a well-known infotainment programme, for which he had filmed a advert in which he joked about the rail disasters that the opposition and the public hold against him (and which in Spain have left orphans and widowers in the midst of their mourning). In the video, Puente stepped into a lift which suddenly suffered a brief malfunction; he huffed, “As if Renfe’s problems weren’t enough,” then the power came back on and he broke into a dance with the other guests present.

This time, passengers on ‘his’ railways are up in arms again, as the number of ‘minor’ incidents has multiplied since January, overshadowed only by the severity of the two main ones. The controversy over the state of rail transport was just one of the scandals to hit Pedro Sánchez’s government; however, he chose to resign only after the Maricarmen eviction case, knowing it would be easier to capitalise on that public outrage during the election campaign. The list of grievances against him changes every day, and it is now quite predictable that even Maricarmen—who has since died following her eviction—will be followed by other deaths. We do not yet know how many, but there will be many.