The key facts

  • On the morning of October 28, a Renfe AVE train in Spain crashed into a stationary Iryo train; several carriages derailed and fell down an embankment
  • Transport Minister Óscar Puente linked the accident to a computer failure: the LZB safety system switched off
  • At the time of the incident, six trains were standing on the section; about 540 passengers were on the trains that collided

What happened

On the morning of October 28, two trains collided in Spain: an AVE train operated by Renfe, traveling from Madrid to Seville, crashed into a train of the private carrier Iryo that had stopped on the tracks, after which several carriages derailed and fell down an embankment. Traffic on the section has been halted. According to Gazeta.Ru, there were about 540 passengers on the two trains that collided.

The transport minister's version

Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente said on the RTVE television channel that the collision occurred after a computer malfunction: due to an error, the LZB safety system, which controls high-speed trains, switched off. At the time of the incident, six trains were standing on the tracks in the section. The accident happened after the dispatch center gave permission for the Renfe train to proceed, and it crashed into the Iryo train.

What remains unclear

The minister confirmed that the immediate cause of the accident was an erroneous decision by dispatchers, relayed to the Renfe driver. However, as Gazeta.Ru notes, Puente was unable to explainwhy the train was given permission to move while other trains were stopped on the section, and he did not name the exact cause of the computer malfunction. Thus, the official version explains the sequence of events, but the root cause of the safety system failure has not yet been publicly established.