Rail fracture possible cause of deadly Spanish train accident

An official investigation commission has identified a rail fracture as a possible cause of the devastating train accident in southern Spain.

Forty-five people lost their lives on Sunday evening in the collision of two high-speed trains near the town of Adamuz in the Andalusian province of Córdoba. More than 120 people were injured, some seriously.

The last carriages of an Iryo train derailed and ended up on the adjacent track. An oncoming Renfe train collided with these carriages and was thrown off the track at a speed of more than 200 kilometres per hour.

Spain’s Commission of Investigation of Rail Accidents (CIAF) stressed in its preliminary report on Friday that notches had been found on the running surfaces of the Iryo train’s wheels.

These notches and the observed deformation of the rails suggested that a rail had already fractured before the Iryo train passed over it and derailed, according to the report published by the Ministry of Transport.

Similar notches were also found on the wheels of three other trains that had passed this section of track shortly before.

Rail samples will now be sent to a metallographic laboratory to determine the possible causes of the fracture. However, the commission stressed that other hypotheses regarding the cause of the accident would still not be ruled out.