Spain Rail Crash Leaves 69 Dead
Families waited for news in Toledo as search teams looked for missing passengers after the collision.
By Rafael Collins ·
Two high-speed trains collided in central Spain Wednesday.
At least 69 people died in the crash, and 180 others were injured.
The accident happened on the tracks near Toledo.
A RENFE train struck an Iryo train that had stopped on the line.
More than 24 hours after the impact, relatives searched for missing loved ones on Thursday.
César Vicente, an actor from Seville, traveled 495 kilometers to Toledo to find his father.
His father sat in seat 13A on the RENFE train.
Vicente spent the night at a religious center converted into a base for affected families.
He said he did not know where his father was and called the situation hell.
Relatives posted photos and descriptions of missing passengers on social media.
Alejandra Marroquín said her sister Adriana was in car 8 of the RENFE train.
Marroquín described Adriana as wearing dark blue clothes and said the family had not heard from her since the crash began on Wednesday morning in their online updates Thursday morning. Search teams using sniffer dogs continued their work in the area. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told reporters that the government was working with families and aimed to strengthen security. This was the second deadly high-speed rail disaster in Spain this year. In January, 46 people died when a train jumped the track in the south. Spain operates the world’s second-largest high-speed rail network, after China’s. The system had not had a deadly crash in over three decades before this year. Residents of Urda, a town of about 2,500 south of Madrid, rushed to help after the crash. They assisted the injured and carried passengers from the tracks to a nearby sports pavilion. David Gómez, a construction worker, said he and colleagues cut through fences to access the area and used first-aid kits until emergency services arrived. Authorities issued a call for blood donations after 110 injured people were taken to hospitals. More than 2,000 people volunteered in the Castilla-La Mancha region. Regional president Emiliano García-Page thanked the 1,300 emergency service personnel who were mobilized.
