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Experts are investigating the cause of Sunday Derailment The high-speed train that killed at least 39 people in Spain has been found to have a broken joint on the tracks, according to a source in the initial investigation of the crash.
Derailed carriages break up an oncoming train, push it off the tracks, and fall off the tracks, which is one of the most common train accidents in Europe today.
The accident happened near Adamuz in the southern Cordoba province, 360 kilometers south of the capital Madrid.
While inspecting the rail, the technicians on site found wear on the joints between the train sections, called fish plates, which indicated that the fault had been there for some time, the source said.
The misaligned joint proved to create a gap between the train sections that widened as the trains continued to travel on the track.
The source, who did not want to be identified due to the seriousness of the matter, said the technicians believe the faulty joint is the key to identifying the real cause of the accident.
Spain’s Commission for the Investigation of Rail Accidents (CIAF), which is tasked with conducting a comprehensive investigation into the causes of the accident, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Spanish rail operator Adif and Spain’s transport ministry – which oversees CIAF – also did not respond to queries.
Álvaro Fernández Heredia, president of Renfe, which operates the second train, told Cadena Sir radio station it was too early to say why. But the accident happened under “strange circumstances,” he said, adding that “human error cannot be ruled out.”
Spain’s train drivers’ union warned train operator ADIF in a letter last August of severe wear and tear on high-speed trains, one of which was the scene of a serious collision between two trains on Sunday, according to a copy of the letter.
The letter, published in X and confirmed to Reuters by trade union SEMAF, said that potholes, bulges and irregularities in overhead power lines were causing frequent breakdowns and damaging the trains, adding that drivers had reported their concerns “daily” to the operator but no action had been taken.
First findings
The first carriages of the train, operated by Spain’s Erio, have driven through the gap in the railway tracks, but the eighth and last carriage has brought the seventh and sixth carriages, he said.
Erio is a private rail operator, majority owned by Italian state-controlled rail group Ferrovie dello Stato.
The source pointed to a photograph showing the gap in the guardrail, which also appeared in a handout image provided to the media by the Spanish Guardia Civil. The area was marked with police incident numbers, photographed by forensic inspectors.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Transport Minister Oscar Puente were among the officials who visited the crash site on Monday morning. Sanchez canceled a trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland after the crash.
Puente said the Erio train is less than four years old and the railway was completely renovated last May.
A source told Reuters that train maker Hitachi Rail had found no problems during an inspection of the train as part of routine maintenance on January 15.
The train is a Frecciarossa 1000, the same model used on the Italian high-speed network.