MADRID — Spanish authorities have identified 66 of the 69 people killed in last week’s high-speed train collision near Urda, in the central province of Toledo, according to information released on November 2 by the High Court of Justice of Castilla-La Mancha and reported by Spanish public broadcaster RTVE.
Of the 66 identified victims, 54 were Spanish nationals and 12 were foreign citizens. The foreign victims included four Americans and one citizen each from Argentina, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Japan, Mexico, Portugal and Tunisia. Authorities said the three people who have not yet been identified were also believed to be foreign nationals. This is a new step from Sunday, when 56 victims had been identified.
Forensic teams identified 53 victims through fingerprints and 13 through DNA testing. The work involves Spain’s forensic medicine institutes in Toledo and Ciudad Real, the National Institute of Toxicology and the Civil Guard’s criminalistics service. Authorities said the families of 60 identified victims had been notified, and 47 bodies had been made available to relatives.
Three missing-person reports remain active, involving two Australian nationals and one Japanese national, according to the authorities. For families still waiting, identification depends in part on relatives travelling to Spain or sending DNA samples for testing across borders.
The crash happened on Wednesday, October 28, near Urda, about 130 kilometres south of Madrid. A train run by the state company Renfe hit the rear of a stationary train run by Iryo on the Madrid to Seville high-speed line. More than 540 people were aboard the two trains. The disaster is Spain’s worst train crash since 2013 and one of the deadliest rail accidents in Europe in recent decades. Spain declared three days of national mourning after it.
Investigators are looking closely at the decisions made before the impact. Transport Minister Óscar Puente said controllers at an operations centre in Madrid could see both trains for 17 minutes before the collision, yet the moving train was allowed to continue. Early findings put its speed at about 100 to 125 miles per hour at impact. An automatic safety system had stopped working across part of central Spain, and the Madrid centre had taken over control of train movements.
Puente has blamed poor judgement by a traffic controller for much of what went wrong. Railway unions have disputed that account, saying it points instead to too few controllers and worsening working conditions. A judge and independent investigators are examining the control decisions and the failure of the safety system. No final account of the cause has been published.
