Spain’s transport minister steps down 6 days after fatal high-speed rail crash
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- Spain’s transport minister resigned six days after a high-speed train crash south of Madrid killed 69 people, the country’s second deadly rail crash this year.
- Investigators are examining how a communications-system failure preceded controllers’ approval for a train to proceed despite another train stopped ahead.
- The crashes have raised new safety concerns about Spain’s celebrated rail network; the government has announced upgrades as a national election approaches.
MADRID — Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente announced Tuesday that he is stepping down, six days after a high-speed train crash south of Madrid killed 69 people.
He made the announcement at the end of an hours-long appearance before lawmakers about the crash — the second such deadly incident this year involving Spain’s extensive high-speed rail network.
“A transport minister in a country like Spain cannot remain in office after two accidents of this seriousness in less than a year,” Puente said.
In Wednesday’s crash, a high-speed train slammed into another that had stopped on the tracks. The chain of events that led to the disaster started when the communication system key to the functioning of the security system on the Madrid-Seville line went down. Central controllers in Madrid took over and gave the go-ahead for a state-operated Renfe high-speed train to proceed, even though there was a stationary train ahead operated by the company Iryo.
It was the second major crash on the Madrid-Seville line this year. In January, more than two hours farther south along the route, a train derailed and struck another traveling in the opposite direction, killing 46 people. That crash remains under investigation.
Puente said that immediately after the deadly crash last week, he had decided to resign but had not made it public.
The crashes have raised fresh concerns about the safety of the country’s rail network, and the most recent incident came four weeks before a national election.
Spain’s high-speed rail network has been considered one of the country’s crowning achievements. It is the world’s second-largest, after China’s. Until this year, it had not experienced a deadly crash since coming into service over three decades ago.
Earlier Tuesday, Puente announced safety measures the government would implement on the rail network, including improving conditions in control centers and pushing for a faster rollout of the standardized European Rail Traffic Management System for safety and signaling.
Naishadham writes for the Associated Press.
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