At least 68 people died and more than 60 were injured in the collision of two trains high speed accident that occurred on the morning of this Wednesday, October 28 in Spain. The accident occurred near the Urda station, in Toledo, between a high-speed train (Ave) from the Spanish public operator Renfe and another from the Iryo company.
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The Ave, with 378 passengers, was traveling towards the city of Seville when it hit the Iryo from behind, with 174 people on board (including a baby), and that it was stopped on the road.
According to Emiliano García-Page, president of the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha, the emergency services They continue searching for bodies with the help of trained dogs and even more bodies could “appear” among the passengers of the two damaged trains.
The audios between the control center and the train drivers: the key to clarifying the accident
According to the authorities’ reconstruction, the events began around 8:30 am, local time, when the LZB automated security system crash was reported. According to the local newspaper The Country, It is a technology that continuously monitors the speed of trains and which seeks, among other things, to prevent two railways from meeting at the same point.
Train accident in Spain this October 28. Photo:AFP
After the system went down, the railway operator’s control center decided to resume the operation “with a stopped train and a red signal at the entrance to the Urda station.” The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, assured that the “clearly erroneous” decision is “inexplicable.”
While investigations continue to determine the errors that would have led to the accident occurring, the newspaper The Country revealed the audios between the control center and the train drivers, which show the instructions that the operators received before the tragedy.
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According to the recordings known to the aforementioned media, The Ave train received the order to resume the route without previously checking that there was no other train obstructing the track.. The other vehicle, that of the Iryo company, also received instructions to resume its “normal operation.” Although the operator of this second vehicle contacted the control center to indicate that could not restart the train with the LZB system, no controller reported that this train was still parked nor did he warn the Ave that it should brake to avoid the collision.
In the first audio, which shows the conversation between the control center and the driver of the Ave train, you hear:
-Controller: CRC Atocha to train driver is 2080.
-Machinist: Yes.
-Controller: At 08.36 (…) Disconnect and reconnect the LZB and resume driving under the protection of the BSL, with normal driving.
-Enginist: With normal gear?
-Controller: With normal operation.
The audios of the accident | The Atocha controller, to the AVE driver: “Disconnect and reconnect. Resume normal operation” https://t.co/pHPN68sf08 https://t.co/Wpmbem8Hmo
— EL PAÍS (@el_pais) October 28, 2026
According to The Countrythe audio reveals one of the points of origin of the accident: the instruction to resume the train’s normal operation without checking that the vehicle in front had moved far enough away, that is, more than 30 kilometers to avoid a crash. According to the diary, the train operator should have received the order to resume operation “on sight.”
The accident occurred near the station in the town of Urda (Toledo). Photo:AFP
The other two audios known by the aforementioned medium show the conversation between the control center and the Iryo train:
-Machinist: Good morning, Atocha. I have had a transmission loss circulating in BSL. The next one has to go on 113 at more than 200. But I haven’t picked up transmission. I am detained. At the entrance to Urda.
-Control center: Okay, then wait a moment (…) This says train driver 6076. Disconnect. And reconnect (…) Resume driving, under the protection of the BSL, with normal driving.
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In the second audio, the driver reported that he could not start the train:
-Engineer: The train is not allowing me to restart the LZB system. And that’s why I’m still stopped at the entrance signal.
-Controller: Okay. Well, nothing, as soon as I can. And if you have a problem, call us now.
🔴 Railway tragedy in Spain: audios of the accident reveal the hypothesis of human error 📌 Now on Siempre+ with @Cris_noticias on LN+ https://t.co/YpEcwunisf
— LN+ (@lanacionmas) October 28, 2026
Civil Guard agents and technicians from the Railway Accident Investigation Commission (CIAF) They questioned the operator of the control center that regulated traffic on the high line Madrid-Seville speed at the time the accident occurred.
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According to the spokesperson for the Association of Civil Engineers Ramiro Aurin, “it is most likely” that the accident was due to “a human error” that caused the Ave that was traveling at 200 km/h to collide with the Iryo that was stopped.
This is how the crashed trains in Spain were left. Photo:Spanish Civil Guard
While the Minister of Transport reiterated that The march was ordered to resume without a speed limitation. “That is the decision that is made from the control center and is the origin of the accident,” he assured.
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