A high-speed train crash in central Spain killed at least 68 people and injured dozens more on Wednesday morning, after a moving train slammed into another that had been stopped on the same tracks by a computer failure, in what Spain's transport minister called one of the worst rail disasters in Europe's modern history.
The crash happened just after 9 a.m. local time near the municipalities of Mora and Orgaz, about 140 kilometers south of Madrid, when a Renfe-operated train carrying 397 passengers struck the rear of an Iryo train carrying 147 passengers that had halted on the tracks. The force of the impact sent several carriages tumbling down an embankment; one carriage caught fire, and a long section of rail track speared through another.
A Computer Failure, Then a Fatal Order
Transport Minister Oscar Puente said the Iryo train had stopped because of a computer failure, which under normal protocol hands control to a 24-hour center in Madrid. That center, he said, made an "inexplicable" decision to instruct trains to resume moving without imposing any speed restriction — a call that put the oncoming Renfe train on a collision course with the stalled one. Spain's deadliest rail disaster in 13 years is now under formal investigation, with the computer failure and the subsequent human decision both under scrutiny.
Survivors described scenes of chaos and panic. "The force of the crash was brutal," said Salvador Arriza, 62, a passenger on the Renfe train, who told Reuters that passengers began breaking windows to escape while others were trapped between seats. Tangui Binier, 22, who was riding the Iryo train, told the BBC that "suitcases started flying and people were screaming" in the moments before the train came to a stop, and that he later saw the train "completely flipped over" from outside.
"I felt like I was being pushed from behind, like I was being thrown to the ground. I hit my head horribly... I was covered in blood. There were people on top of me."
Antonio Jiménez Barca, journalist and passenger
A Long Night of Searching and Grief
Sebastián Herrero, 46, told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo that he saw "many people with broken noses, broken arms" and described being "in the air for about four or five seconds" during the impact, a moment he said felt like a lifetime. Emergency crews worked through the day pulling survivors from the wreckage, and one unidentified passenger sobbed during a live television interview as he recounted a woman dying in his arms. "She was very cold and she was all alone," he said.
Spain's rail operators Renfe and Iryo have not yet detailed what disciplinary or safety changes will follow, but the crash is expected to trigger a broader review of how Spain's rail control centers handle recovery from technical failures — specifically, how and when a stopped train is cleared to move again without a mandated speed limit. With the final death toll still likely to rise as search efforts continue, the government has not yet set a date for a full public accounting of what went wrong.
