What we know about Spain’s second high-speed rail tragedy this year

At least 68 people were killed and about 80 injured when a high-speed train ploughed into the back of a stationary train in central Spain on Wednesday. The crash, just before 9am (08:00 GMT) near Urda, a town south of Madrid, is Spain’s second deadly high-speed rail disaster in less than a year, and comes just weeks before national elections. The authorities have blamed an “inexplicable” order given by a rail control centre that allowed one of the trains to resume normal speed following a signalling failure. The moving train was run by Renfe, Spain’s state-owned rail company. It hit the rear of a stalled train operated by Iryo, a private player which entered the country’s high-speed railway service market in 2022.