Spain faces second deadly high-speed rail crash of 2026 before election
A rear-end collision involving two high-speed trains in Urda killed 68 people on Oct. 28, prompting Spain to announce three official mourning days and an investigation.
By StoryBreak
Published October 29, 2026 at 9:00 AM EDT
A rear-end collision involving two high-speed trains killed 68 people in Urda on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. The trains were operated by RENFE and IRYO.
Spain’s government announced three official mourning days for the accident. The mourning period began Thursday, Oct. 29.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the accident site in Urda, Toledo. The government said an independent rail-accident commission and judicial authorities were examining what happened.
The crash was Spain’s second deadly high-speed rail disaster of 2026. A separate crash in southern Spain in January killed 46 people.
The October collision occurred about four weeks before Spain’s national election, adding the disaster to the issues facing the country ahead of the vote. Spain’s high-speed rail network carried 45 million passengers in the previous year.
The reported account of the collision involved a stationary IRYO train and a RENFE train that struck it from behind. That account also said a computer malfunction had disabled a security system along a 63-kilometer section of track before the crash.
The independent commission and judicial authorities are investigating the accident. Their work is expected to address the circumstances of the collision and the reported failure affecting the rail section.
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