Four Americans killed in Spain train crash

Four Americans died in a high-speed train collision in Spain on October 28.

Spanish officials confirmed the identities of the victims on Sunday night. The dead also included one citizen each from Canada, Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Tunisia, and the Czech Republic. Two Australians and one Japanese national are still missing.

The Center for Integrated Data, the legal body responsible for identifying victims in high-casualty events, stated that all but three of the 69 victims have been identified. The agency had previously announced the deaths of 54 Spaniards, a French citizen, and a Portuguese citizen. Officials said they are waiting for families to arrive in Spain for in-person identification.

The crash occurred in the morning on October 28 in Urda, in the province of Toledo. A moving high-speed train struck the rear of another train that had stopped. The impact derailed two cars and injured 58 people. The two trains, carrying more than 540 passengers combined, were traveling in the same direction from Madrid to Seville.

Independent investigators said their initial findings indicate the state-owned RENFE train was traveling between 100 and 125 mph at the time of impact. The privately owned IRYO train was stationary. Transport Minister Óscar Puente blamed a traffic controller’s poor judgment for much of the incident. Railway unions rejected that explanation, citing deteriorating working conditions and understaffed control rooms managing growing workloads.

This was the second major accident on the Madrid to Seville route this year. An earlier derailment more than two hours farther south killed 46 people when a train struck another moving in the opposite direction. That crash is still under investigation.

Spain’s high-speed rail network is the second-largest in the world after China’s. It had recorded no fatal crashes since entering service more than three decades ago.