“EXTREMELY STRANGE”
Aerial footage of the crash site from Spain’s Guardia Civil police force showed the two trains far apart, as rescuers in high-visibility neon vests worked nearby.
Unlike the 2013 accident, the derailment occurred on a straight section of track, and the trains were travelling within the speed limit, officials said.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente said the first train to derail was “practically new” and the section of the track where the disaster happened had been recently renovated, making the accident “extremely strange”.
Train operator Iryo said the locomotive was built in 2022 and last inspected just three days before the accident. It said it “veered onto the adjacent track for still unknown reasons”.
The company said around 300 people were on board its service from the Andalusian city of Malaga to the capital, Madrid.
Renfe, the operator of the second train travelling to the southern city of Huelva, said it was carrying 184 passengers.
Human error has “been practically ruled out”, Renfe President Alvaro Fernandez Heredia told Spanish public radio RNE.
Heredia also ruled out speeding as a cause of the accident. He said both trains were travelling just over 200kmh, below the 250kmh limit for that section of track.
“It must be related to Iryo’s rolling stock or an infrastructure issue,” he added.
