Residents of Urda, a small village in Spain’s Castilla-La Mancha region, mobilised to help after two trains collided nearby on the morning of Wednesday the 28th. The crash left at least 74 people dead and dozens injured, according to the account provided by a journalist who travelled to the area.
The collision site was about eight kilometres from the village. When the journalist arrived, damaged carriages lay on both sides of an embankment. Passengers who could walk were heading to buses, while ambulances attended to those more seriously injured.
Local people joined the response in different ways. Some drove injured passengers in their own cars; others brought food and water to the municipal gym, where victims were receiving assistance. Employees at a village supermarket handed out water and milk, made sandwiches and offered fruit, cold cuts, gloves and disposable cups. Some supplies came from the shop, while residents bought others to donate.
Alejo García de Blas, a 70-year-old resident, was cycling when he heard what he described as an explosion. He returned to the scene, helped remove a fence so ambulances could get through and guided arriving vehicles. He said he was struck by the unusual silence after the impact and by how many people came to help.
José Luis Díaz García, a 69-year-old farmer whose land is less than a kilometre from the crash site, also went to assist. He helped a seriously injured pregnant passenger reach her husband. Recalling the experience, he said the scenes had left a lasting impression and described the pain as beyond words.
Later, at the University Hospital in Toledo, families waited for news about passengers. One woman said her 40-year-old daughter had survived with serious bruises and several broken bones and had undergone surgery. The daughter’s colleague, who had been travelling with her, had not yet been found. Other relatives said they had spent hours waiting without information about loved ones.
Urda has just over 2,500 residents and is accustomed to welcoming large crowds for an annual religious pilgrimage. But the scale of the disaster close to the village left residents and families asking how the collision had happened. At the end of the day, the cause remained under investigation.
Sources: Folha Mundo.