Despite a red signal, high-speed trains were given permission to continue traveling before the accident, says the minister.
Spain’s Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, suggests at a press conference both technical and human errors as the cause of the train accident on Wednesday.
This is what the minister says at a press conference, according to The Guardian.
According to the transport minister, there was a technical error which automatically caused traffic on the affected section to stop.
Despite an active red signal, however, a high-speed train from the company Renfe was given permission to continue its journey and thus broke the protocol, writes Reuters.
The minister says at the press conference that the order to restart traffic should not have been given and that the person responsible for the decision is being investigated, writes The Guardian.
– The decision to resume traffic while the system had not been restored rests with the control center, and the control center made that decision to resume traffic under circumstances that from our point of view are incomprehensible, Puente said according to Reuters.
The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, also emphasizes at a press conference that the government must “clarify what has happened and why this tragedy has happened”, writes The Guardian.
– If there has been any negligence, then it will come to light, and if there have been errors in the security system, then it will be handled with the utmost determination, says Sánchez at the press conference.
At least 68 people have died in the accident where two high-speed trains collided in a fatal accident in Spain on Wednesday morning.
In January, 46 people were killed and over 120 injured when two high-speed trains collided in the Andalusian city of Adamuz.
Both accidents this year have occurred on the connection between Madrid and Seville.
RITZAU
