The central question surrounding the high-speed rail tragedy in Urda concerns the 17 minutes during which the Adif control center in Atocha failed to detect that an AVE train was heading directly toward a collision. As rescue operations continued and the death toll rose to 69, emergency personnel, victims, and families struggled to understand what occurred during this critical period, which will now be the pivot point of the official investigation.
The incident unfolded on the Madrid-Sevilla line, the only high-speed route still operating under the LZB communication system. This system, inaugurated in 1992, monitors circulation conditions and can order emergency braking if safe speed limits are exceeded. However, the section between Urda and towns like Malagón or Yeles has suffered at least nine signaling failures since 2024, with two incidents this year linked to copper theft.
The sequence of events began before 08:31 when an AVE carrying 397 passengers was forced to stop due to a system failure. The driver contacted the control center in Madrid, which attributed the issue to a system outage in the Urda zone. At 08:36, after instructing the driver to restart the system, controllers authorized the train to resume normal speed. Minutes later, at 08:41, the driver of an Iryo train located just 25 kilometers away reported being held up at the entrance to Urda due to a transmission loss while operating under LZB. This driver received identical instructions to disconnect, reconnect, and resume normal travel.
By 08:48, the Iryo driver contacted control again, stating the train could not restart the LZB system and remained stopped before the entry signal. Unaware that the AVE was approaching at full speed, the driver explained the immobilization issue. These communications highlight previous warnings made by Fabricio Favara, CEO of Iryo, during an investigation into the Adamuz accident. Favara had described the LZB system as "safe but quite old," noting that his company's trains faced significant difficulties reconnecting after a failure, often remaining immobile for extended periods.
Audio recordings from the Adif control room reveal a sense of disarray but no decisive action to stop the AVE or prevent the collision. The investigation has now shifted focus from the crash site to the control room in Atocha. A Judicial Police unit from the Guardia Civil, supported by the Prosecutor's Office, interrogated the controller and two other staff members present at the time. The controller tested negative for alcohol and drugs, though this was a preliminary interview before he was granted the status of an accused suspect.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has committed to clarifying every detail of the tragedy to provide answers to victims' families and reinforce safety measures. This aligns with previous findings by the Railway Accident Investigation Commission (CIAF), which noted two years ago that human error posed a high probability in similar incidents. The CIAF emphasized that the only effective barrier against collision was for the circulation manager to visually verify the track was clear, a measure susceptible to failure due to its reliance on the human factor.
Amidst the technical investigation, families face immense uncertainty. The Guardia Civil has received 64 reports of missing persons, with some potential duplicates. Relatives gathered at the Sacerdotal Residence, where many waited for news while dealing with misinformation. The Data Integration Center (CID) issued a warning regarding fraudulent SMS messages falsely identifying bodies or claiming deaths, stressing that official identification is conducted only in person by armed forces agents.
Identification efforts have begun, with José Manuel Chacón, a 31-year-old Guardia Civil agent from Seville, being one of the first identified thanks to his DNA already being on file. Conversely, cases like that of Marisa Manchado, a 70-year-old Madrid resident, present challenges as her adopted son could not provide biological samples for comparison. As families receive devastating news, the focus remains on understanding why no alert was issued during the 17 minutes the AVE traveled toward the immobilized Iryo train.
Sources: La Vanguardia.