Spain’s transport minister, Óscar Puente, resigned on Tuesday night, six days after a high-speed train collision near Urda in central Spain killed 69 people — the second fatal rail disaster on his watch in less than ten months.
Puente announced the decision at the end of a tense four-hour hearing before lawmakers from a caretaker parliament body, who had demanded he take responsibility for the two crashes, which together killed 115 people. Just hours earlier, he had insisted he would not step down.
“A transport minister in a country such as Spain cannot remain in his post after two accidents of this gravity in less than a year, however different they may be, and whether or not I bear direct responsibility for them,” he told the lawmakers, according to The Times.
Resignation kept secret from Sánchez
The 57-year-old said he had decided to quit within minutes of learning of last week’s crash at Urda, in Toledo province, but told only his family — keeping even Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in the dark. His resignation takes effect once it is published in the official state gazette. He also said he would not stand as a candidate in the general election on November 29.
On Wednesday, Sánchez said his deputy, Carlos Cuerpo, would provisionally run the Transport Ministry, Reuters reported.
Two crashes, 115 dead
The Urda disaster came nine months after the Adamuz crash in Córdoba in January, which killed 46 people. Last week, an AVE train traveling at between 160km/h and 200km/h ran into the back of a stationary Iryo service. Investigators are still piecing together how a computer failure that knocked out the LZB safety system along 63 kilometres of the Madrid–Seville line led to the control centre authorising normal running with a red signal still showing.
Spanish authorities said on Monday they had identified all 69 victims: 54 Spanish citizens and 15 foreigners — four from the United States, two Australians, two Japanese, and one each from Argentina, Canada, France, Mexico, Portugal, Tunisia and the Czech Republic. The government also announced €30 million in aid for the victims and their families.
The resignation reverses the position Puente took last week, when he publicly ruled out stepping down. The ruling Socialists are now fighting an election campaign without one of their most combative — but also most polarising — voices.
Sources: Reuters; The Times.
