Politics1 min read

‘It all happened in a split-second’: survivors recount details of Spain’s second deadly train crash in 10 months

By · Via The Guardian · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The collision occurred Wednesday morning near Toledo when a state-operated Renfe train bound for Seville rear-ended a private Iryo train. Survivors assisted one another out of the mangled carriages before Guardia Civil officers and medical teams established a makeshift triage post inside a local sports centre. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the rural town to express national mourning in the wake of the tragedy. The disaster marks Spain's second fatal rail incident this year, following a crash in Adamuz that claimed 46 lives in January.

Key points

  • The catastrophe marks Spain's second mass-casualty rail disaster within a ten-month perio…: The catastrophe marks Spain's second mass-casualty rail disaster within a ten-month period.
  • Emergency responders and vehicles were mobilised from both the Castilla-La Mancha and Mad…: Emergency responders and vehicles were mobilised from both the Castilla-La Mancha and Madrid regions to coordinate relief.
  • Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez travelled directly to the crash site as the country entered…: Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez travelled directly to the crash site as the country entered an official period of mourning.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Josimar Medina woke a little before 9am on Wednesday to find himself airborne and hurtling through his carriage on the fast train from Madrid to Seville.

“I remember flying through the air and looking for my girlfriend, who was also shooting through the air,” said Medina, a 37-year-old tourist from the northern Peruvian city of Chiclayo.

Once he landed, he looked around and realised just how lucky he and his girlfriend, Vitoria Maia, had been.

“I saw people with cuts, people covered in blood, people missing limbs, and I saw one person who had nothing left below the chest,” said Medina. “I saw people with their heads crushed and people with mutilated arms.”

The Peruvian stood recounting the details of Wednesday’s deadly rail crash, in which at least 68 people were killed and dozens more were injured, wearing a light brown T-shirt stained with the blood of a young American man he had helped move to safety.

Medina and Maia had been in the seventh carriage of the state-operated Renfe train that smashed into the back of a train run…

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