Train crash in Spain - what we know

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Ciara Kelly (0:28)

That's fieldmaps.ie The Hard Shoulder with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman On Newstalk with Ciara Now, local government have confirmed that at least 68 people have been killed and dozens seriously injured in a high-speed train collision south of the Spanish capital Madrid. This comes after another train crash on the same line run by the same operator killed 46 people in January of this year and exact details are still emerging and it is believed that there may have been both technical and human errors involved in joining us with an update on what we know is Spain-based journalist Simon Hunter. Good evening to you, Simon. The death toll continues to climb, we think it's 68 now. Tell us what we know about what happened this morning.

Simon Hunter (1:18)

Good evening. Yeah, that's correct. The death toll is currently at 68 A further 77 people are currently in hospital and reportedly 15 are in a very serious condition. So what we know so far, she put perhaps the best information that we've had today came from the transport minister who held a press conference this afternoon. He said that what had happened, what appears to have happened is that first of all, there was a computer failure, there was a systems failure which took the safety systems offline. That meant that the trains had to be controlled manually by the control center in Central Madrid in the Atatja train station. Around six trains were stopped at that point. But for some reason, what seems to have happened is that one of the controllers from the control center in Madrid gave permission to this AVE high-speed train to set off.

It was traveling as high as 200 kilometers an hour without knowing that about 20 kilometers down the track, there was the stationary train, the high-speed IRIO train. It's a different train line. It was the AVE train that smashed into the back of the IRIO train. Two of the carriages ended up in a ditch on the embankment, which was again very similar to what happened in this other tragic accident that we saw in January of this year.

The questions now being asked is how on earth could this happen?

Ciara Kelly (2:42)

Yeah, obviously back in January in 46 people were killed on the same line run by the same operator. The transport minister then Oscar Puente had said that the track was in perfect condition, that there was no problem with the Spanish railway service. But this must surely be on top of that hugely undermining politically, I would imagine, as well as a huge day of mourning in Spain.

Simon Hunter (3:08)

Absolutely, it's a massive blow for the Spanish government because there were already questions being asked back in January as to whether the Spanish government is spending enough on the maintenance and the upkeep of this infrastructure of the high-speed rail network. In that case, it was because of a broken piece of track that caused one of the trains to derail and smash into another one. But now, this latest incident is going to prompt the question of whether enough is being spent on safety, whether the Spanish people and all the visitors that come to Spain to spend time here as tourists and use this rail network can have confidence in that system. And we are in the run up to election, and this is already being used as a political football. And the government has some serious questions to answer.

Ciara Kelly (3:54)

Yeah, elections in Spain on the 29th of November.

All the political parties by the far right have said that they will not campaign today and nor will they use this as a political football. But the far right have said that they will not be allowed mourning to silence criticism. Are people in Spain, obviously, they're very shocked and this is a huge tragedy for the country. But equally, the previous transport minister, José Luis Ábalos, is in prison for 24 years for corruption and he obviously was not that long ago in charge of the transport system as well. Are people dissatisfied with how things are being run and will this impact on the election, do you think, Simon?

Simon Hunter (4:36)