Rail collision in Spain kills 69

A rail collision in Spain on Wednesday killed 69 people and injured over 100 others. The crash occurred when a train operated by Renfe, Spain’s main rail company, collided with an Iryo train that had stopped on the tracks.

High-speed rail network disrupted by signaling failure

The high-speed rail network had been interrupted earlier due to a failure in the signaling system. This caused six trains to stop, including the Iryo train involved in the collision. The German LZB signaling system, used by Spain’s high-speed rail network for years, was implicated in the incident.

Previous warnings about signaling system

An official from the private company Iryo had warned about failures in the LZB system three weeks earlier. During an investigation into a rail disaster in Adamuz in January 2026, which killed 46 people, an Iryo official had also criticized the LZB system’s reliability.

System failure led to delayed response

On Wednesday, the LZB system failed, causing six trains traveling between Madrid and Andalusia to stop automatically. A few minutes later, the Renfe train collided with the Iryo train, which had remained immobilized despite the driver’s attempts to move it.

Human error and system flaws questioned

Audio recordings suggest the possibility of human error from the control center. The system should have alerted the control center that a train was stopped on the tracks, but the Renfe train continued for twenty minutes before the collision. The driver of the Iryo train said she was unable to restart the system, preventing her from moving forward.

Worst rail disaster in Spain’s history

The incident is considered one of the worst rail disasters in Spain’s history and the second major crash in a few months on the second-largest high-speed rail network in the world, after China. The government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is under pressure to address the safety concerns raised by the crash.

LZB system described as aging and unreliable

Iryo’s CEO, Fabrizio Favara, described the LZB system as "relatively safe but old," with frequent failures. He explained that when a train’s signal disconnects from the ground signal used by the LZB, the train stops and requires time to reconnect and resume service.